Great Expectations

I was up early this morning, putting the final touches on packing, dressing, and straightening up my room and bathroom before leaving for the airport and a visit to see my two children.  I am spending half my time with my son in Canada and the other half with my daughter in Virginia, with a bridge flight taking me from Canada to Virginia. Today's start time was 8 a.m., so I got up nice and early for a shower, dressed in comfy clothes, and got dropped off at the airport a bit before 7 a.m.

On the mark, get set -- go!

In this case, however, it was no-go.  There was an issue with the plane, but it should be back in service within a half-hour, so just relax and we'll be on our way soon.  The half-hour turned into an hour, then an hour-and-a-half, then two hours, at which time we were assured that the crew was in the waiting area with us and we'd be on our way soon. Well, I'm not sure of the airport's definition of soon, but we went from believing the every 15-minute update, to the half-hour update, to the 45-minute update, and all the passengers and the flight crew were still grounded.

At noon, I gave up. I was tired, cranky, and wired in a bad way, so I wanted something done NOW!

That was when we got the real news: the flight was cancelled and no one was going to San Francisco without a complicated process of rebooking through a different carrier.  I stood in the queue as long as anyone else who hoped to find a work-around, but I finally gave in and asked if I could try this again tomorrow:  just forget that I ever showed up, change the date on my itinerary, and I would go home, regroup, and then return tomorrow.

I'm home now and all rebooked for tomorrow, which involved rebooking one "leg" of my 3-legged vacation trip.  I'm going to Canada, then to Virginia, and then home, which is 3 separate "trips" and 3 separate itineraries.  Because I wanted to add back the lost day to the Canada leg of the trip, I had to rebook leg 2 of the trip (from Canada to Virginia).  I approached that undertaking with some concern because I was afraid it was going to cost me to make the change, and cost me it did:  I basically had to repay for that itinerary as if it were a new ticket, which was a bit of a jolt coming at me as it did after an unexpected trying morning.

We'll try this again tomorrow and see if I can get to Canada and start my va-ca at 5:15 am, the rebooked time, and a 7-hour lay-over in Toronto. You take what you can get and just suck it up.

There's always a good that comes from the upset:  my dogs were thrilled to have me back home if only for a few hours before I leave again.  God bless the dogs and their undying love.