Chicago, Etc.

I spent this weekend in Chicago. The trip was okay, but way more effort than it was worth. The worst was last night. My flight was scheduled for 10:00. I went to the American Airlines, check in, and looked at the departure board. The St. Louis listing said 10:25...Cancelled. I freaked out, and ran over to a ticket to see if I could rebook. It seemed I was not alone. there must have been 150 people in front of me with menacing looks on their faces. As I waited I called my dad, who told me to book a room at the O'Hare Hilton, and then call him when I found something out.

I waited in line for a solid hour and a half and in that time I got the Hilton to pick up the phone. (I was not the only one calling them) They said they were booked, but they could set me up at Embassy Suites. I said go for it, considering the amount of time I'd spent on hold to get through to them I figured this was my only chance to get a place to stay.

Right after I finished making the non-cancellable reservation I got up to the ticket counter. I gave the woman my name and told her where I was going and she said, "Your not showing up. Do you have your itinerary?" I pulled it out and instantly noticed that my flight was on United. I figured I was flying out on American because that is what I flew in on. (American Culture Studies made the reservation.) It was now 10:30.

I freaked out again. For some reason she couldn't find my St. Louis United flight on the computer, so told me I would have to go to terminal 1. I ran to the train to transfer stations, hoping that the flight was delayed or cancelled. (That's a first) I then called my dad starting the conversation with, "I may have just done the stupidest thing ever."

I got to United, and found that the flight was delayed until 11:50. I got my ticket, and went through security. To add insult to injury, the gate was about as far away as you could get and since I had spent the past two days walking the city of Chicago in new shoes my left ankle was dying. By the time I reached F14 I was literally limping.

I asked the woman behind the desk what was the deal with the St. Louis flight? she then told me "It is supposed to go out at 12:50, but we don't have a plane yet." That sounded real promising. For a minute I thought I'd just change to a flight the next day, but realized that I probably couldn't walk back.

I waited it out... At one point they said it would be delayed until 2:20. Then they switched gates on us. I limped over to F8 sat down and waited until we finally boarded at 1:00 then waited 45 minutes on the tarmac till we got into the air.

I got back to my apartment at 3:30 this morning pretty close to in need of crutches.



If you want to see my Chicago pictures, I have posted them on facebook.