Travelling by non-bike
Aug. 4th, 2003 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kirkcudbrightSo I spent the weekend in beautiful South Dakota at my nephew's wedding.
South Dakota is home to Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, and other scenic stuff, but the wedding was in Yankton, in the southeast corner, near Nebraska and Iowa. Picture, if you can, straight roads through flat farmland, fat with corn and soybeans, and the occasional whiff of beef cattle. I thought you could.
The wedding and reception were nice, and I got to hang with the nephews (aged 21-29) in the bar afterwards. I had a few Coronas and a very large Newcastle, for old time's sake.
Getting to and from South Dakota, on the other hand, was a disaster. Our connecting flight from Chicago to Sioux Falls was cancelled while we were in transit to Chicago. Our options were flying standby on a full 3:00 flight, waiting for a 7:00 flight, or flying to Minneapolis, and transferring to a Northwest flight to Sioux Falls. That's the one we took.
The 2.5 hour layover in Minneapolis turned into almost 4 hours, because the plane had a crack in the tail, and the pilot wouldn't accept it. They eventually found another plane, but they changed the gate twice before we boarded.
The plane they found was a DC-9, with the engines mounted on the body, rather than on the wings. So naturally, we were seated next to the engine.
Of course, our luggage was lost in the transfers, and they couldn't even tell us where it was. Once it's tagged for re-route, it basically disappears from the system, and they just have to look for it on every plane that arrives.
This luggage included all my clothes (including my suit), Kylie's dress, all our shoes, all of my mother-in-law's clothes, and all of her medications. It finally showed up on a United flight in the morning, and it arrived at the hotel half an hour before the wedding. We were already at K-Mart when the phone call came, so we decided to buy emergency pants anyway.
Getting out of Sioux Falls was even worse. The weather in Chicago was bad enough that they had a ground hold (no one can land or take off) for two hours. So we spent two hours in the plane, on the tarmac, waiting for clearance to take off.
After two hours in the holding area, we went back to the gate and de-planed. Eventually, to no one's surprise, the flight was officially cancelled, and we had to wait for other arrangements. We managed to get onto what was supposed to be the 3:30 flight, and left Sioux Falls at 5:30 (from a scheduled 1:30).
In Chicago, we landed in concourse F, in a terminal I'd never been in before. There were no agents at the gate to help us, and the only customer service desk was in concourse B, about half a mile away. After standing in a 200-person line for 20 minutes, we saw the notice that we should be standing in line at the gate for the next flight. Stood in that line for another hour, but did manage to get on the flight on standby, thanks mostly to my Premier status. Got into Boston sometime after 1:00AM this morning, and home around 2:00.
And of course, our luggage did not arrive with us...
And all the time I'm thinking, "Just give me a bike, and I'll find my own way home."
South Dakota is home to Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, and other scenic stuff, but the wedding was in Yankton, in the southeast corner, near Nebraska and Iowa. Picture, if you can, straight roads through flat farmland, fat with corn and soybeans, and the occasional whiff of beef cattle. I thought you could.
The wedding and reception were nice, and I got to hang with the nephews (aged 21-29) in the bar afterwards. I had a few Coronas and a very large Newcastle, for old time's sake.
Getting to and from South Dakota, on the other hand, was a disaster. Our connecting flight from Chicago to Sioux Falls was cancelled while we were in transit to Chicago. Our options were flying standby on a full 3:00 flight, waiting for a 7:00 flight, or flying to Minneapolis, and transferring to a Northwest flight to Sioux Falls. That's the one we took.
The 2.5 hour layover in Minneapolis turned into almost 4 hours, because the plane had a crack in the tail, and the pilot wouldn't accept it. They eventually found another plane, but they changed the gate twice before we boarded.
The plane they found was a DC-9, with the engines mounted on the body, rather than on the wings. So naturally, we were seated next to the engine.
Of course, our luggage was lost in the transfers, and they couldn't even tell us where it was. Once it's tagged for re-route, it basically disappears from the system, and they just have to look for it on every plane that arrives.
This luggage included all my clothes (including my suit), Kylie's dress, all our shoes, all of my mother-in-law's clothes, and all of her medications. It finally showed up on a United flight in the morning, and it arrived at the hotel half an hour before the wedding. We were already at K-Mart when the phone call came, so we decided to buy emergency pants anyway.
Getting out of Sioux Falls was even worse. The weather in Chicago was bad enough that they had a ground hold (no one can land or take off) for two hours. So we spent two hours in the plane, on the tarmac, waiting for clearance to take off.
After two hours in the holding area, we went back to the gate and de-planed. Eventually, to no one's surprise, the flight was officially cancelled, and we had to wait for other arrangements. We managed to get onto what was supposed to be the 3:30 flight, and left Sioux Falls at 5:30 (from a scheduled 1:30).
In Chicago, we landed in concourse F, in a terminal I'd never been in before. There were no agents at the gate to help us, and the only customer service desk was in concourse B, about half a mile away. After standing in a 200-person line for 20 minutes, we saw the notice that we should be standing in line at the gate for the next flight. Stood in that line for another hour, but did manage to get on the flight on standby, thanks mostly to my Premier status. Got into Boston sometime after 1:00AM this morning, and home around 2:00.
And of course, our luggage did not arrive with us...
And all the time I'm thinking, "Just give me a bike, and I'll find my own way home."
