25 Hours in California: Part 1 - Off we go?

I have returned! And really it almost feel like I was never gone. But I was, so I'll try my best to recap the highlights. First of course, I had to get to California right?

My flight was at 6:00am out of New Orleans. I wanted to be at the airport around 5:00, which meant we had to leave the apartment around 4am. Not that fun. Traffic wasn't that bad, and since I wasn't checking anything, I went through the lines and got through security pretty quickly.

My first flight was from New Orleans to Denver. I sat next to a father and his 2 or 3-year-old son. He was really cute, and they way they interacted was cute too. They both passed out pretty quickly, and I shortly followed. All and all a pretty uneventful flight.

We landed in Denver, and I walked to the next gate. I didn't have a very long layover, which was disappointing, as I walked by several yummy sounding food stops: Jamba Juice, Cantina Grill, and several others. But unfortunately, when I got to my gate we were boarding so I really didn't have time. I boarded the plane, got out my Cosmo (required plane reading), put my socks on and was ready to go... or so I thought.

I hadn't really been paying attention to how long it was taking us to take off until the pilot came on, "No we are not taking a tour of the airport. We got ready to take off and our wing flaps wouldn't lift up, so we're heading back to a gate to check the problem." After we arrived back at a gate he came back, "We're going to run a diagnostic, this will take at least an hour. Once its done, we'll let you know." They put on two movies for us to watch at the point, Yes Man and 7 lbs. I've seen both, so kept at my Cosmo. I sent my parents texts to let them know what was happening.

1 hour later...

The captain comes back on, "The first diagnostic went well. So we're running a second one. This will also take at least an hour, we'll keep you updated." Throughout this time, they kept calling out people's names. I'm assuming it was people who had some sort of connection and they were trying to get them to their destination any other way. I wasn't that concerned at this point. I was really hoping whatever it was they would get it fixed and we'd be off and out.

1 hour later...

The captain comes back on, "We ran the second diagnostic, and it looks like there's a computer error and we're not able to control the hydraulic system. Unfortunately, there's no spare computer here, but we're trying to see if there's a work around. But I don't think its likely it will get fixed. We'll let you know in 20 minutes." This is when it became a problem for me. Knowing I was only supposed to be in California for 25 hours, and I was already down to 23, this could end up really bad. If the only flight I could get didn't get me in till say 9pm, what would be the point? It would have been almost better to fly back to New Orleans and hope they would refund my money. So I grabbed my stuff and got off the plane, to talk with an agent.

Not long after I got in line, they made an announcement saying they would only be helping people who had a connection. If you were flying directly to L.A. once the flight had been officially canceled they would automatically rebook you. After hearing this about half the people got out of line, but that wasn't good enough for me. After all, if I couldn't get a flight in the next few hours, I just wanted to fly back to Louisiana. I was hoping I could fly into a different airport, perhaps even Long Beach.

After finally reaching the attended I explained my situation to her. She said there was a flight Sunday night around 5pm, if I wanted to extend my stay. But since I was really flying in for dinner that night, it wouldn't really help. She asked me if flying into Orange County would work. When I told her that would be perfect, she printed out my ticket saying, "Its boarding right now. Gate 25. Go that way."

I ran to that gate, and called my parents on the way, so I would actually get picked up. The worst thing that happened on this flight? I sat next to a woman who smelled like cigarette smoke. Not so bad at first, but after a few hour, not so fun.

Of course there is my direct flight Sunday from LAX to New Orleans. That one? Arrived 30 minutes on time!

Next Time: The actual visit!

~Shoshanah

P.S. I found out earlier today Anna Duggar is pregnant? Third generation! Can you imagine how many grandchildren Michelle and Jim Bob will have? I'm still hoping for a Father of the Bride moment, where Michelle is pregnant at the same time as her daughter-in-law! I guess we'll have to wait and see!