Friday, June 28.
I am writing this from the comfort of my home in Lexington. I rested yesterday after I came home from jury duty orientation that I was required to attend. I am glad to be home. The old saying is true..."there's no place like home."
My return flight from Uganda started out very good. I had no problem checking in at the Entebbe airport, getting through all the security checks along the way (2 checks in Entebbe, one in Brussels, and one in Chicago), or being able to make all the connections. That was until....I arrived in Chicago. After going through customs and the TSA security station, I got on the tram and easily found my gate and sat down to check my email for the first time in almost two days and get ready to fly the last leg of my journey. The plane was on time and it looked like everything was going smoothly.
Several minutes before we started to board, I received a message on my phone from my ABC36 Weather app that there was a severe thunderstorm watch for Lexington and surrounding area. I opened up the weather map on the phone and it did show a line of storms in Louisville and I reasoned that if our flight departed on time we should have no trouble arriving ahead of the storm. I even texted Luke back and forth a couple of times and told him that I hoped and prayed that his 11 pm flight to Lexington would depart and arrive without any delays or problems.
We boarded the plane right on schedule. They did take a few extra minutes to reload some of the baggage in order to level the load but we still pulled away from the gate ahead of schedule. We started towards the runway and just before pulling to the final position where we could take off, the plane came to a halt. We sat there almost 15 minutes and not one word from the cockpit. Meanwhile, ten or so planes came around us and took off. I knew then something was wrong.
The pilot came on the intercom and explained the problem. He told us that we were being delayed due to storms that were now moving towards the Lexington area and would be returning to the gate. I thought OK, this will be alright and they will send us on our way after whatever storm moves through. But, as luck would have it, didn't work out.
An interesting note - in less than a minute after the pilot told us that our flight had been delayed, I turned on my phone and when I did, a text message from United Airlines popped up telling me that our flight had been delayed! When I downloaded their app last year I had signed up for flight alerts. I was surprised how quickly I got the text message. Technology can be amazing!
Once we got to the gate, the flight attendant told us that the wait would be a long one and that they wanted us to de-board the plane and wait in the terminal. So, we gathered all our stuff and went back inside. It wasn't five minutes later that we received a message on the intercom saying that our flight had been cancelled!! We were then directed to go to the customer service desk that was down the concourse and they would help us rebook on another flight. Again, almost immediately afterwards, I got another text message saying that our flight was cancelled. By that time, I wasn't too happy with United Airlines.
All fifty seven of us on the flight walked down to the customer service desk. The line was incredibly long. There must have been 250 or so in the line when we got there. It was about 15-20 minutes later, while standing in line, I received an email from United. It was a notification that I had automatically been rebooked for a flight on Thursday, June 27th at 9:30 pm. My first thought was that this was pretty neat and felt good about it. But, as I started to think more about it, I realized that I would have to wait for over 24 hours before boarding a plane for home!! This was not going to be good, especially since I had to report for jury duty at 9 am on Thursday! I had already requested and been approved to delay my jury duty from April to July and I did not want to ask for another extension.
After being in line for about 45 minutes or so, a customer service lady came walking down the line of customers, checking with them and answering some of their questions. When she came to me, I showed her the email that I received and asked her about what she thought would be my chances to go stand-by on the later flights tonight (Wednesday) or first thing in the morning. She told me that the previous Lexington flight had been cancelled and that every flight from now until 9:30 pm tomorrow evening was completely sold out. Realizing that 114 people had to be rebooked, I asked her about alternatives, refunds, etc. She did not give me much hope.
After weighing my options and saying a short prayer, I decided to rent a car and drive home that night. So, I called the 1-800 customer service number and cancelled my flight and asked for a refund. I determined that I really did need to get this jury duty thing out of the way so that I didn't have to worry about it later on in August, September, or October when I have a lot of things planned. I knew it would be somewhat risky to drive so late at night after flying for over 24 hours without much sleep, but decided that I would take my time, pull over and rest if necessary, and with the Lord's help, would be OK.
I then left the terminal and caught the Avis shuttle bus. I rented a mid-sized car, one-way to Lexington, for $350, which did not include the cost of gas. Ouch?? I finally left the Chicago airport and pulled onto I-90/I-94 at just a few minutes past 7 pm (central time) or 8 pm Lexington time.
It is almost a six hour drive from Chicago to Lexington, but with the rush hour traffic in Chicago, having to stop to get something to eat and to get some coffee and take a few stretch breaks, it took me right at seven hours. So, I finally arrived home and got into bed at 3 am after 34 hours of traveling and with very little sleep.
It was very hard to get out of bed at 6 am on Thursday to get a shower and to turn the rental car in at the airport. Normally, I would not have had to get up that early, but Michelle had a 8 am meeting and since I needed her to pick me up and bring me back home, I needed to turn in the rental car first thing that morning. After turning in the rental car, Michelle took me back home and I got into my truck and drove downtown to the courthouse to report for my first day of jury duty.
After resting yesterday afternoon and evening (Thursday), I woke up on Friday feeling fairly refreshed and very glad to be back home. Thanks for your prayers.
Blessings!
Fred
Sent from my iPad
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