The Fun of Traveling

The fun of traveling—

As some may know, I spent about five days in my beloved San Francisco visiting with family. It was great to see them but traveling back was a pain in the old patoot.

I got on a BART (Subway for those who are not Bay Area inclined) train at about 4:55 figuring on about an hour trip to the airport in San Francisco. Well, that plan went out the window when we started stopping and then starting; stopping and starting. The conductor got on the PA and told the crazy few that were on a plane at that ungodly hour of the morning that there would be delays. I think he said something about "single tracking" but I hadn't had coffee yet so I wasn't exactly computing much of anything in the old noggin.

So, I arrived at the airport about 15 minutes late and not having taken BART to the airport before got a bit confused and almost got lost. There are signs at BART that say to go to check-in but it really leads to things that are more like kiosks than anything. So I wandered around for a bit, cursed the stinking signs and then finally figured out that I needed to be on the monorail and moseyed on over there.

Once I finally got over to security, I was reminded of just how much of a dumb@ss I can be. Having just acquired the laptop I am on now, I forgot to take the thing out of my backpack and put it on the conveyor belt. Needless to say this caused a few backups in line as I tried to climb into the nearest hole while the TSA figured out that the laptop wasn't a bomb or had a fifth of Jack stashed inside of it.

The above though was nothing compared to the woman I encountered at the first security checkpoint. Now how dumb can you be to not bring your pucking ID???? She had a copy of her credit card and NOTHING ELSE!! I have no idea how that one turned out as I was trying to get my laptop through security, but somehow I think that woman missed her flight.

The flight from San Francisco to Charlotte wasn't too bad with the exception of the constant turbulence and the woman who was heaving out last month's breakfast from getting over served from the beverage cart. I was doing some work when I heard a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURL or five and then the heave-a-thon mercifully came to an end.

We landed in Charlotte and I had what I thought would be a couple of hours to kill, so I meandered a bit, charged the laptop and then headed over to the gate. Well folks, that is when the first of the delays hit as I thought we were going to need to build an ark to get away from the gate. (By the way, the next person who farts in an enclosed environment such as this plane will die a very painful death. Ewwwww.)

The skies opened up, animals were going two by two onto a United flight bound for Canton and I was of course delayed.

Originally we were delayed until 6:25 but then our plane didn't arrive; then the crew wasn't there and then finally at around 7:00 or so we finally started to get on board the plane. I figured okay, taxiing until about 7:30 and home by 8:30…..Not so fast. Due to the delays that hit because of the aforementioned monsoon, there were 20, count them 20 planes ahead of us for takeoff. The captain was kind enough to allow us to use our cell phones and those evil portable electronic devices that allegedly screw up the navigation system, so that way at least we didn't die of boredom while waiting to take off. So anyway, about 20 minutes later the captain gets back on the horn and lets us know we will be further delayed due to weather to the south. Oh goody!! More delays!! Mind you, I had been awake since 4:00 in the morning, slept about three hours anyway and was getting about as cranky as a six month old without their binky.

So, at around 8:15, we finally get a new flight plan and go merrily on our way. As I write this, I believe we are about 30 minutes from Jacksonville and the plane feels like it is a ping pong ball on speed. We are bouncing and bouncing and bouncing around to the point where the flight attendants are hanging on for their lives while trying to sell us air to breathe.

Now my final rant has to do with US Airways as a whole. Don't get me wrong, they are nice enough people, but can they even serve peanuts anymore? On the SFO/Charlotte portion of the flight there were "snack boxes" that were available for seven bucks. Seven bucks for some randomly stale snack food? I mean come on, are the airlines in that much trouble that they can't shell out a 20 cent bag of peanuts for someone who paid $400.00 to be on the flight?

Oh yeah, here was the other kicker. I never check a bag anymore. Not only does US Air charge $15.00 to check said bag, but my luggage has a bad habit of getting lost. Well, I am waiting to get on the plane in San Francisco and one of the not so friendly workers was telling people they had too much cargo and we had to check our luggage. Mind you, I don't have an ID tag on my bag so I am wondering what planet my bag ended up on. With my luck it is in someplace horrible like the middle of nowhere Kentucky and it will take a month for them to find the bag……………..