Alright...so it should have been a nice and easy travel day - ORD to MSP to TUS. Piece of cake. On the ground in Tucson, ready to work by about 12:30pm local time. But no...didn't work out quite that way. Here's the most succinct rundown I can give of such a long, freaking day:
5:45am CST - wake up...to pouring rain, thunder, and lightning in Chicago (bad news on a travel day)
6:55am - get in cab to head to ORD...weather still awful
8:10am - arrive at ORD...not surprisingly, my first flight is delayed because of the weather...spend the next 35 minutes working with the Delta agent to fix my itinerary since the delay is long enough that I will miss my second flight (d'oh)...result? No possible way to get to Tucson today. So I get rerouted to fly to Phoenix instead. (double d'oh)
8:45am - head through security....get selected for random additional screening (oh, come on!)
9:15am - board first flight
10:05am - take-off from O'Hare
11:10am - land in Minneapolis...for 3.25 hour layover (blah)
2:25pm - board second flight...get settled in nice window exit row seat in coach...BUT get called up to first class at the last second (finally, a bit of good luck!)
3:00pm - take-off from MSP
3:50pm Arizona time (yes, it's a real thing) - land in Phoenix...get luggage (saw a cute dog while waiting for my suitcase...pet him and talk baby-talk to him...feel a little calmer) and head to rental car center
4:30pm - pull out of PHX in the equivalent of a tin can with wheels (cheapest option for last-minute one-way rental car) to start the 120 mile journey to Tucson...and for the entire drive, here is all there was to see:
and this....
and some more of this....
Seriously?? Horribly boring and not-scenic drive. Desert, desert, and more desert. And it was about 105 degrees. Dry heat? Yes. Does it matter when it's over 100? Not as much as I was hoping....boo.7:15pm - arrive at hotel in Tucson...check-in....drop off luggage in room very quickly...switch from high heels to tennis shoes
7:30pm - head to TUS airport to turn in rental car
7:55pm - turn in rental car...head to baggage claim to grab a taxi to head back to the hotel...stub toe on curb on the way...curse in front of small children (it hurt)
8:30pm - arrive back at hotel...immediately put on pajamas...and start the work that still needs to be finished tonight...yawn a lot (my body is on central time...maybe even eastern from the weekend in Cincinnati)
So from the time I walked out of AK's place this morning to the time I got to settle in my hotel room in Tucson, almost 16 hours went by. In that amount of time I could have flown to India, for gosh sakes. Oh Monday, Monday...I really did wish it were still Sunday....alllllllll day long.
No comments:
Post a Comment