Travel travails

Oh, me and my word play! As Chad would say, "You really cracked yourself up on that one, didn't you?" To which the answer is a resounding "yes."

Anyway, some of you have asked about my travel problems this weekend. Well, I had to catch a plane on Saturday to go to Lubbock. So my plane was supposed to leave at 1:50 Saturday afternoon and then I would fly to Albuquerque to catch a plane and then get to Lubbock at 5:20. Well, I got to the airport fine on the shuttle (I'll talk about that more later) notoriously early, as I tend to do. So 1:50 rolls around and there's still no plane at the gate. There are about 5 of us who are supposed to do this Phoenix to Albuquerque to Lubbock thing, and they call us to the desk. Never a good thing. We find out then that the plane we are supposed to be on at this very moment has not taken off from Las Vegas yet because of mechanical problems. A blessing in disguise, I suppose. I don't want to be on a plane that is having mechanical problems, because then I would be REALLY late to wherever I was going. Anyway so because we would miss our flight to Lubbock from Albuquerque if we waited for this first plane, they book a later flight for us (over two hours later) from Phoenix to El Paso to Lubbock. So now I will be in Lubbock at 8:30 because my layover is an hour in El Paso. Okay, so I get on the plane and we go to El Paso. We get there, and the five of us who are going to Lubbock walk to that gate. We let out a collective groan when this flight says it is delayed for over an hour! We finally get on the plane, and at 9:30, I get to Lubbock. Meanwhile, I rented a car from Enterprise when I booked my flight. They had a really great deal, but apparently, I chose the only rental car service whose desk closes at the Lubbock Airport at 8:00. Oh no! You say. Don't fret though; being the uber-planner that I am, I called Enterprise while still in the Phoenix airport to let them know the situation, and the nice guy at the desk says that since I'll be late, he can make a reservation for me with Alamo; he checked and it would be only a couple more dollars a day. So he does that and calls me back and says, "I made a reservation for you for Saturday through Monday." This is great, except I need the car until Tuesday. "I'll walk over and fix it," he says. "Okay, call me back if it is going to be a higher rate for Tuesday so I can make the decision," I say. No word, so I figure it's the same. Well, I get to the Alamo counter and it turns out that Tuesday is actually twice the price of the other weekend days, since Monday is still considered the weekend apparently. So the rental car ended up costing me more, but by the time I was finished with my 12 hour traveling day (during which time I could have driven to Lubbock), I was a little too tired to care. Exciting huh? Not really, but hey, you asked!

Speaking of the shuttle...this was an interesting experience. Sometimes on the shuttle to the airport nobody speaks the entire time (as was the case on my way down there) and sometimes you can't get anybody to shut up (the case on the way back, when I really could have used a nap). I got to listen to a radio station that played nothing but muzak, courtesy of the shuttle driver, and I got to overhear 3 people's mp3 players...quickly becoming one of my greatest pet peeves. The worst part though was the sounds I could hear of the couple in the background who were kissing every once in a while. Just plain nasty.

Has everybody else had enough yet? Stories like these, although not the worst thing that can happen to you in the world, make me glad I don't travel for a living. I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere for a while (I don't think).