Phew!
Rob and I are back home in Denver after about a week in New York for my sister’s bridal shower and to see my parents’ new house. Though the time we spent in NY was a ton of fun, the whole getting there and getting back to Colorado was not fun at all.
On our way to New York, our connecting flight out of Chicago was cancelled, so we ended up spending the night in the airport. Chicago was having some really bad weather, and almost every flight was either cancelled or severely delayed. It was not a place filled with happy campers!
It was pretty cold and we got minimal sleep, but we kicked off our “morning” (6 am) with mimosas and bloody marys.
Luckily, my sisters were using all their resources and electronic devices to find us a different flight to get on the next morning. The airline we flew couldn’t offer us anything until Satruday! (We were supposed to land on Wednesday night.) Without them, Rob and I would have spent most of our vacation in Chicago.
On our way to Denver, we had to land in Fort Collins since DIA closed due to storms. This is a pretty routine thing, happening 4-5 times a week according to the TSA guy we chatted with. However, on our descend into Fort Collins, we hit a 100 foot drop without warning and two of the stewardesses, who weren’t yet seated and buckled, hit their heads on the ceiling. It was really scary and since Rob and I were sitting in the very last row, we were extremely worried about them but couldn’t do anything to help.
After they were taken to the hospital for neck injuries and possible concussions, the plane couldn’t fly to Denver.
Instead, we waited around about 3 hours for charter busses to drive everyone to DIA. The frustrating part about this was we were so close to Denver, yet so far. The airline wouldn’t let us take our checked luggage and go because it was a security issue. We finally crashed in our own bed at 3 am.
Anyway, enough complaining. After sleeping in this morning, the day has been spent getting caught up on emails, house chores, and general life. I’ll be back later this week with all the fun things we did while in New York!
RQ: Have you ever spent the night in an airport? What is the worst turbulence you have been through?
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Never spent a night in the airport…..but watched a steward, carrying full glasses of water, hit the ceiling, because of turbulence, and landed without spilling a drop!
That steward is amazing! Those are some seriously impressive skills.
Sorry that your travel was so crummy! I can’t believe ALL of that happened to you on the same trip. My worst flight experience was probably when my husband and I were traveling for our honeymoon and got delayed due to fog – there was only one flight each day to Tahiti, so if we missed it we would have been put back a day. We were literally running through the airport at our next connection, and with the help of generous people, made it.
I had to sleep in the Stockholm airport once, but I was prepared and it wasn’t bad.
Phew! Glad you made that flight! Running through airports is not fun and everyone looks at you like you’re crazy.
What a nightmare! Glad you’re home safe and sound! It does remind me of the video that has gone viral of a guy who had to spend the night at the Las Vegas airport. He made a music video to “All By Myself”. It is hilarious! If you get a chance to Google it, it is worth watching. Lol
Thank you! I am going to have to google this video!
Wow, sorry that your trip started and ended so badly! I hope the stuff in the middle was better. I can’t believe they couldn’t fly you out until Saturday… that’s horrible!
I wouldn’t have had a problem hanging out in Chicago, but my sister’s shower was on Saturday. It just wasn’t going to work to wait so long.
I know you just told me the story, but I will say it again: this sounds terrible and so scary. So glad you are safe and back home (and could get a run in tonight!).
Thank you, Amy!
That you are still a very chipper person after all that. I would have a super grouchy post, so go you on that one!
Thank you! At some point I realized there was nothing I could do and a bad mood wouldn’t help move things along.
That is CRAZY turbulence! I have been on a lot of flights but never experienced anything like that. So glad you’re okay!
I hope you never do! It was freaky.
Oh – what a stressful trip (at least the travel portion!!).
We spent a night at the airport in Hawaii once – not the full airport, the military one – no services and the boys were 4 & 6. Thankfully, we kept our rental car and Chris and the boys slept in the car while I sat with the luggage (they had rules about laying on the floor in the terminal).
Oh yikes! That would be a tough night withe boys being so young.