Flying the Stormy Skies

Doug, guessed my secret reason for not posting. But then again, since he was working air traffic control along the east coast on Sunday, he had the inside line.

If you are planning a trip anywhere in the south this summer, you might want to call ahead and make sure that I am not on your flight. Not that I am planning on boarding another airplane for a long while...but, just in case.


Sunday morning we got up relatively early to get ready for the day, pack up our room and prepare for the trip home.


We headed over to Gladys Knights and Ron Winans Chicken and Waffles for brunch.

Chicken and waffles, you ask? Yes, Chicken and Waffles. An amazing combination of four of the best fried chicken wings ever and mouth watering waffles with maple syrup!

Thankfully, I was stuffed...because I would not eat again until very late!

I arrived at the airport about an hour early. I should have caught a clue when the gate next to ours was running two hours late from Newark. But, not me.

We boarded our plane on time - 4:10 sharp. The flight was scheduled to leave at 4:45...and was only a few minutes late due to last minute baggage being loaded. Every seat was filled.

We moved out of the gate and during the pre-flight check an indicator light was not working properly. We went back to the gate and spent 30 minutes 'rebooting'.

We returned to the runway and our place in line...only to be told that Houston had been closed to all incoming flights due to storms. We sat waiting for word that we could take off. After a little over an hour, it was decided that we needed to refuel. We moved back to the gate, refueled and all passengers who wanted to rebook their flight for the following day were allowed to leave the plane.

After about a 1/3 of the passengers left, we proceeded to get in line again. After about another hour, we were told that Houston had just opened to incoming flights....BUT, Atlanta had just closed to all flights heading toward the west. We sat on the runway for about another hour as the lightening flashed all around us and the rain poured down.

Finally, after 4 hours on the plane, we told that we would be taking flight as soon our turn arrived...we were 30th in line!

The whole plane broke into applause as soon as we were in the air. We were finally on our way home!

Well, things were going way too well for me. About 200 miles outside of Houston, the airport was closed once again and we were diverted over the Gulf of Mexico for about 30 minutes.

The whole plane broke into applause again as we touched down at IAH. We were home!

Only to hear the captain one more time as he broke the news to us that there was not a gate opened to receive us due to all the flights arriving at the same time. Well, an hour and two gates later...we were finally able to leave the airplane. We had boarded at 4:10 Eastern and got off at 10:45 Central time. That is 7 hours and 30 minutes sitting on an airplane for a two hour flight!

I finally arrived at my car around 11:30 and drove home. I should have been home by 7pm, instead it was nearly 1am!

Oh the joys of flying during the summer. I was advised by a savvy air traffic controller that I know to schedule any future flights during the morning...especially during the summer!

Now, I know!