Let's see...
My husband was being considered by a church in the Atlanta area to come as pastor. We flew from Louisiana to Atlanta and spent a few days, ending with his trial sermon and a vote by the congregation. Our flight was scheduled to get us back home in plenty of time for hubby to give his resignation at the church in Louisiana. We turned down an invitation for lunch with some of the new church members so we could make it to the airport on time. When we get there, we find out that our flight has been canceled and we've been put on a later flight. There are no other flights that we can take. (Our original plane was snowed in in New York state.)
Of course, we were planning to be back for the evening service, so now hubby is rushing around trying to make phone calls to figure out what to do with the church since we aren't going to be there, and to call my family and let them know that we were going to be late getting home. We had no cell phone, and no cash on us. That meant that all of these long distance calls were put on our credit card. (More on that later.) After all of that, we found a place to eat, and barely managed to find a place to sit down. (This was New Year's weekend.)
We finally got on our plane and in the air. We flew from Atlanta to Jackson, MS, where first we were told that those who were continuing to Monroe, LA needed to remain on the plane because there was some bad weather approaching Monroe, and we needed to get back in the air ASAP. Okay, that's fine. Then, a few minutes later, there was another announcement--all passengers needed to deplane. This plane was going no further. (At the time, the Monroe airport had no de-icing equipment.)
We get into the airport, and find out that the airline is putting us on a charter bus to get to Monroe. Then we had to figure out where to get our luggage, and wait for quite awhile for the bus to get to the airport. (Mind you, it is getting later, and all we've had to eat were those little bags of airline snack mix and cokes.) We get on the bus and head out. No sign of the snow that we've been told is coming, and it only takes a couple of hours to drive from Jackson to Monroe.
As soon as we crossed the Mississippi River, the snow started to fall. This was not just a little bit of snow, either. The bus is now crawling down the interstate. We had to stop a few times for the driver to clean ice off of the windshield. It was an endless bus trip, and most of us were tired, grouchy, and hungry. Thankfully, my husband and another man on the bus were able to keep the mood somewhat light-hearted.
Sometime around 10:00 pm CST, we arrived at the airport. We had left our car in the airport parking lot, but it was a Saturn and living in the deep south, we had no snow tires, chains, etc. We called my father to come and pick us up. We pulled some comfortable clothes out of our suitcases and changed in the airport restrooms. (I think I forgot to mention that we were still dressed from church that morning. Not the most comfortable or warmest we've ever been...) We then settled in to wait for our ride. Normally, it would have taken him about 15 or 20 minutes. It took at least twice that with the weather. We decided just to stay with my parents that night. Our cat and our second car were at their house anyway. We ate supper around 11:30 that night.
The next afternoon when we went to pick up the car at the airport, we found out that the credit card company had flagged our card for unusual activity, so we had to get that straightened out. Thankfully, he had some cash on him that day. It was an exasperating experience all the way around.
And that's our travel trauma story!
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Originally Posted by Corinna
. And things went downhill from there. It is a disaster every time I travel, though.
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