I just flew in to Orlando, and boy are my arms tired!
Old joke, but so true.
This morning I was picked up by the Mercury Limo service and was treated to stories by an acquaintance of a coworker. Does that sound convoluted? Well, this driver's fiction concepts were well done and it made the traffic at 6:30 AM go by a bit faster.
No problem so far. I got through the "expert traveler" line at Midway. Again, no problem. Upgraded (on my own dime, I might add) to business class, which is well worth the $49 on AirTran. When I went to weigh my one piece of checked luggage, it was 5 pounds overweight (my luggage struggles just like I do!). I immediately knew what it was...the convention binder. When I took it out of my luggage, the suitcase weighed a full NINE pounds less! So now that 9 pounds is walking with me as carry on luggage.
No glitches in the flight from Chicago to Atlanta, although I really wish I could have gotten a through flight, because anyone who has ever lived with me or flown with me knows that flying is not my favorite pasttime.
When we got to Atlanta, again no problem. Fairly sunny skies once we landed, although it was cloudy coming in. But by the time we were to take off, the darkness was overtaking the sky. Still, AirTran was optimistic and we boarded right on time.
As we were waiting for all to be seated, the lightning started, followed by torrential rain, more lightning and thunder. The pilot came on and said we'd be waiting a while, since they'd closed the runway we needed to use on account of the weather. Probably 15 to 20 minutes. No problem, right?
BOOM! Lightning struck the plane as we were sitting there. All the lights and air went out. Nice to know the emergency lights really did come on.
For a couple of minutes we sat in the dark. Then the lights sputtered back on. But the ground crew came in and said we needed to deplane.
To make a 2 1/2 hour waiting story shorter, we finally took off - in another plane, from another gate, and with the flight and desk attendants in kind and patient form. Thank you very much!
The sky cleared, and we got to Orlando amidst partly cloudy skies.
Ingrid says I now qualify for prophet status, having been struck by lightning and lived to tell about it. And my hair is no more frizzy than it started!
But, boy, are my arms tired!
