On a Jet Plane (Part 2)

And now for the thrilling Part 2...

By the time we park and take the shuttle to the airport, there is a HUGE line for security. Piece of advice... Don't travel on a Friday afternoon. Just don't.

Once through security, we head to the gate because at this point, we know we will miss our connection. They had put us on another flight so we rush to that gate. I don't know if it is because we were later getting there or what, but they didn't have a seat for us. In the meantime, we convinced them to put us on a flight that night into D.C. We were planning to drive up there the next day anyway to see some of our friends, so it would better than spending the night in Chicago.

We get one our original flight to Chicago and it was a relatively nice flight. We hadn't gotten a chance to grab any food to bring on the plane other than beef jerky and some water, so it was a nutritious meal.

When our flight lands in Chicago, we checked on the flight to D.C. since it was supposed to take off before we landed. I had been delayed, but was scheduled to depart any minute. The employee said we needed to hurry.

Small problem... It was in a different terminal.

Cue Home Alone and Home Alone 2.

Phil and I began sprinting as best we could through O'Hare airport. And the sprinting included me begging the people on the moving sidewalk to walk faster than afternoon saunter speed.

Seriously??? What is with people at airports walking like it is an afternoon stroll? People have flights to catch! Either walk faster or get the #%*& out of my way.

We make it to the gate and by some miracle, the plane hadn't left yet everyone was on board but they were waiting for one passenger (the perks of being a mileage plus member I guess).

After 5 minutes on the phone, we had our tickets and were boarding the plane. The passenger they were waiting for boarded right behind us.

I whipped out my phone and managed to book us a hotel room in the 3 minutes we had before we pulled away from the gate. It seriously could have been an AT&T commercial.

It was after midnight when we landed. I got us a rental car. By 1 we were checked into our hotel and STARVING. At two in the morning we found an open McDonalds and had our second meal of the day.

And that concluded one of the more hectic travel days I have ever had.  We get to do it again at Christmas time.  This time definitely without the puppy and with much lower travel expectations.  I have 8 weeks or so to mentally (and physically prepare).