All Set For Departure

February 11, 2009

After a very restless night of sleep (3 hours to be exact), my parents and I drove to Chicago so I could catch my flight. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Heaven knows that I need all the extra time I can get when it comes to airports and traveling. I checked in my luggage and crossed my fingers that it wasn't too heavy (50 pounds per bag). First bag 46 pounds. Check. Second bag 52.5 pounds. Dang it! I moved one steel-toe boot and a pair of shoes to the first bag and re-weighed both bags: 48.5 and 50 pounds. 98.5 pounds of stuff to live with for the next 5 months.

Hugs to the parents and off to security. I breezed right through and went to my gate. Too easy! My first flight was from Chicago to Los Angeles and was scheduled for departure at 4: 05 PM. Everything was going smoothly; the screen began flashing boarding in 5 minutes...then boarding in 1 minute. The next time I glanced up the screen flashed DELAYED due to plane maintenance malfunction. Really?

Luckily I had planned for this. I had booked my flight from Los Angeles to Sydney for 10:13 PM giving myself plenty of time in the case of a delay or bad weather. Our flight eventually departed at 5:45 PM and I landed in Los Angeles in plenty of time. My next flight boarded on time, but after we were seated they announced that there was a plane maintenance problem. Say what? Three hours later the problem was found and the part was replaced. Before we could leave the plane had to be refueled, but guess what? Someone messed up and put too much fuel in. Another delay. Now the plane was overweight and unbalanced. How was this problem rectified? Well, a few people were asked to get off the plane and the pilots burned the rest of the excess fuel by revving the engine for an hour. So four hours later, we were off to Sydney! I would like to say that the rest of my trip went smooth and I landed in Sydney as planned, but that would be too easy.