VEGAS, baby! - the return

It was time to leave the city of sin and head back to the good ole midwest where I could enjoy the rest of my vacation and the holiday season.

My flight left at 11:30pm (Vegas time), so I arrive at the airport around 9:30pm. It's not busy at all. The first thing I notice is my flight is not listed on the Departure screen, which in all my times of flying I have never seen. When I did the express check in nothing was said about the flight being delayed. I see the flight arriving from Cleveland is on time, so I dont think anything of it. I go wait. At about 11:15pm an announcement is made that the flight will be delayed...two hours! A lot grumbling going on amongst the passengers as many now are going to miss connecting flights. Eventually we all find out the reason for the delay. A flight attendant on an arrival flight from Newark is scheduled to be on the Cleveland flight. That's right we couldn't take off and over half of the passengers had to reschedule because of a missing flight attendant. So I wait more. We finally get boarded around 1:30am and take off. I manage to doze off for about two hours on the flight.

We land in Cleveland at 8:15am (EST) and now I have under thirty minutes to get to another terminal and catch my flight to Fort Wayne at 8:45am. I haul ass to get there only to find out it has been canceled. I go to the desk and tell them I need to be rescheduled on the next Fort Wayne flight and when that is. The lady at the boarding gate tells me the next flight is at 12:15pm but she cant process any changes here and I have to go to Customer Service. I ask why she cant change it here and she explains that they have several flight getting ready to board and she doesn't have the time (bullshit). I go to Customer Service and stand in line for two and half hours to get a ticket that took all of three minutes to process.

So I wait in again. At noon they announced the flight is delayed because of mechanical problems. They will give us an update when they know. We finally board at 1:30pm and then get the pleasure of setting in a plane for another forty minutes because the shitter is froze up and it cant be emptied.

I finally arrive at the Fort Wayne airport around 3:30pm and head to the Economy lot ($6 a day...yes). I chip away the half inch of ice from my vehicle and head out. Except I cant get out of the lot. The economy lot has no attendant and it's pay with credit card only. The card reader wont read my card. I try several times and make a call to the help center. He tells me that he'll be there as soon as he can. I keep trying as I wait and about twenty minutes later it finally takes. The attendant arrives with a police escort because he's on crutches as I exiting the lot. We straighten things out and I am on my way.

It occurs to me that I have no food at home and should make a quick pit stop at the store. Meijer is busy as hell and it takes me about an hour. It's almost 5pm and I'm close to getting home. Unload the groceries, shower, and sleep for awhile are my only goals as it's been 17 hours since I left the hotel in Vegas and almost thirty hours since I really slept.

On the way home I'm checking out the damage of the ice storm. Lots of branches down, but my neighborhood seems to have power. I pull into my driveway and notice my outside light is off. Then my garage door doesn't work. Shit. I get out and walk around to the back where I see the tree shattered in pieces sitting on top of the power line going to my house. Great.

I call AEP and they put me on the list. The estimated time of fixing the situation is December 27... and it's Monday the 22nd. Fuck. It's forty degrees in my house so I cant stay there. I call a friend, toss whats left in my fridge and freezer in with my newly bought groceries and head an hour north.

As of writing this blog, still no power.

My vacation is close to being ruined.

Happy Holidays!