I don’t like to fly…

But, alas, it is a necessary part of the job…so off I go!

I flew out to Naples, FL (via Ft Myers) on Wednesday of last week (6/25) with a return scheduled for the next day.  The flight over was uneventful.  The return flight was a different story altogether.

My flight was scheduled to depart at 6:48 pm but I finished my meetings early and headed to the airport thinking I might catch an earlier flight.  NOT.  The ticket counter personnel practically laughed out loud and said I’d be lucky if I got on my flight.  So, there I sat from 3:00 pm to around 10:30 pm when my flight finally left.  Problem…my connection from Houston back to Austin was supposed to leave Houston at 9:50.  No problem…it was delayed until <insert long, suspenseful pause> 3:08 am.  I gave the red coat an incredulous stare and inquired if the plane would really leave at 3:08 am…to which he replied, “Oh yes, it has to.  They need that plane in Austin for a flight out first thing tomorrow morning.”

Decision time.

Austin is a 2.5 hour drive from Houston.  I can either cross my fingers and hope the plane leaves at its new time (which puts me home around 4:00 am) or rent a car and drive home (which puts me home around 1:00 am…assuming I can stay awake).  I opt to wait it out.  The plane leaves at 3:08 am, we touch down in Austin at 3:50 am.  I get home by 4:30 am, crash, wake up at 9:00 am, crash some more, wake up at 10:00 am, and go to work.

14 hours is a long time to spend getting from Ft Myers to Austin…I have made that drive before and it didn’t take much longer than that.  On the bright side, I was able to finish an entire book from cover to cover (John Wesley Powell’s account of the first river expedition down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon).