Blogs : Michael McCoy

Are You There Yet?

I was actually supposed to be in Des Moines late Tuesday night.

I thought everything was hunkey-dorey until I got to the airport.  I was able to get my luggage checked with no problem.  Once that was done I proceeded to security where I was in for a surprise.  The line was from here to Albuquerque...however, it proceeds to move fairly rapidly.  Once I got to the TSA agent who checks your photo ID and the boarding pass, I run into my first situation.  He told me my passport was invalid because it didn't list my address.  I'm like WTF are you talking about?  Fortunately one of his co-workers saw what was going on and came to the rescue by telling me to move on as everything was okay.  As I proceeded to the metal detector, I overheard the co-worker explain to Mr. TSA Agent how passports work...must've been dude's first day on the job.

My second situation was when I removed my shoes to go through the X-ray machine along with my carry-on bag and jacket.  I go through the metal detector with no problem and walk over to retrieve my stuff,  I have everything with the exception of one of my shoes.  I say to the TSA agent by the machine, "Uh, I'm missing a shoe."  She's a little indifferent until I repeat, a little more forcefully, that I'm missing a shoe.  "Are you sure you didn't misplace it?" she asks.  "Yes," I reply, "because it's still in your machine being examined."  Needless to say my shoe was being held hostage by another passenger's bag since it was loaded onto the conveyuer belt wrong.

It takes 10 chiefs and one Indian (sorry I couldn't come up with a better description) to figure out how to screw in this light bulb in order to retrieve my shoe.  At first, one of them had to audacity to tell me to move on.  "Not with one shoe, I'm not!" I retorted.  Finally the TSA agents are able to get the situation straightened out and I got shoe. 

Freshly shod, with my carry-on bag and boarding pass, I walk rapidly to Gate D-13 for my flight to Milwaukee which will connect me to my final destination:  Des Moines.  The third situation arises as the airline gate personnel play musical gates.  Once they decide to settle on a gate, I learn that the plane I actually see on the tarmac and think that's the one I'll be boarding for my flight to Milwaukee belongs to the folks who were supposed to fly outta BWI at 3 PM earlier today.  It's only then that I learn that most flights have been grounded due to the bad weather cropping up outta the Midwest. 

The airline makes an announcement for the folks who were waiting since 3 that they can board the plane.  They tell those of us who are waiting for the 8 PM flight to sit tight.  Looking at the departure board, I get this sinking feeling in my stomach that our plane is gonna be way late.  Oh, but the news gets "better" as the airline announces there is another grounding due to a storm rapidly approaching BWI.  As I see the lightning flash signaling the storm's approach from the west, I realize me flying to Milwaukee and then on to Des Moines is not gonna happen. 

This feeling is confirmed with the lack of definitive information or updates from airline personnel.  It isn't until @ 9 PM the airline announces the flight that was supposed to leave @ 8 has been cancelled.  They tell us we need to contact the reservations # as the computer isn't working to accomodate the requests for rebooking.  Fortunately, we are able to retrieve our luggage.  After getting my bag, I finally get through to a reservation agent after 45 minutes.  At first she tells me I won't be able to make it to Des Moines until sometime Wednesday night.  I ask is there anything that she can do to get me into Des Moines early Wednesday afternoon.

She checks availability and is able to get me on a flight from Reagen National in DC.  Great!!!  The flight is scheduled to leave around 7 AM and still flys me to Milwaukee where I have to connect to Des Moines, but at least it has me coming into Des Moines later on Wednesday morning as opposed to Wednesday night.

So I'll try it again in the morning and, hopefully, I'll be able to make it in time before the start of the long jump qualifying rounds that are scheduled to go off later on this afternoon. 

PS - I finally made it in this morning @ 9:30 local time...I'm off to get the long jump pit prepared for the men's qualifying round.

Yeah

11:11 AM, June 11, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Yeah the flight situation was a mess yesterday because of the storm. I heard all about it from someone that got stuck in the Philly airport. Hope you have a good time at NCAA'S