The sleep deprivations continue.

Mitzi did get in last night. She did miss her original connection in Chicago. (Side note: I was wrong about the layover. Had the flight out of Athens not been delayed by two hours, she would have had plenty of time, no optimism required.) American booked her on a United flight that would have put her into Jacksonville about 10:40 PM, about 30 minutes later than her original flight. She had to hustle to her gate, but she got on that flight.

But...

That flight was then delayed sitting on the tarmac after pushing back from the gate for 40 minutes.

Then...

For reasons perhaps only understood by the aviation gods, after landing in Jax, her flight couldn't get a gate. Apparently, it was to remain at Jax overnight, so it had to be parked at Gate 6, which had a plane boarding at it, which was also apparently delayed.

So I sat in the cell phone lot for half an hour.

Kept texting Mitzi to check on progress, got no response.

Called her, went to voice mail.

I figured that maybe her battery had died, she has a mini and had been traveling for the better part of 18 hours. So I left the lot and figured I'd make a pass by arrivals and orbit if necessary.

The airport seemed incredibly busy for being nearly midnight. Traffic was thick and crept along, which was fine with me as it increased the probability I'd find her on the first pass.

When I got to Door 2, I got a text saying she was at Door 1. I was able to nudge my way to the curb and told her where I was. She got in the car at midnight.

We got home at 00:45, and her body clock was now somewhere around 7 or 8 A.M. and she had to get unpacked, show me all the souvenirs, etc. Finally got to bed after two.

And the alarm went off at 0530. Turned it off and went back to sleep.

She got up at 0730. I said screw it and got up too. She went back to bed. I'm here.

It's a roll of the dice, flying these days. Not that you'll crash or anything. Just whether or not you'll get to where you're going anywhere near the time the airline schedule said you would. And extreme weather events are only going to keep making that worse.

When we were in Martha's Vineyard, my daughter flew from LA to New York. Weather hold over JFK. Low on fuel, flew to Philly, landed, refueled, back to JFK. She was in that tube for 10 hours on a domestic flight.

It's a big country. We don't have high speed rail. People have to fly.

But it sucks. It really does.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:43 Saturday, 30 September 2023