Two Pilots & an LSW: Well, THAT was fun

I don't even know where to start this. I haven't slept more than a few hours in a row in over 3 days, so that doesn't help.

First, Kaylee has brought her cat home. Molly, also known as "Pretty", IS a pretty cat, fluffy white and black, and very affectionate and vocal. She came right up to me and rubbed up on me, and has a sweet quiet meow that she uses to 'talk' a lot. She was rehomed to Kaylee because her current home had too many pets including a dog who would traumatize her all the time. So she's a little skittish of loud or sudden noises, but the family thinks she'll get along fabulously in a house with just her and Kaylee. Molly loved the deck and looking outside, just like Dulcie and Roadie did on ours. I think she's going to be a good cat for Kaylee. She seems very sweet.

Back to my day. We were supposed to go to Gunnison, Grand Junction, then home leaving at 4:30 pm, no problem.

4 hours in the Conquest, first stop in Gunnison went great. We stopped at a little place in town and got brunch and coffee, went out to his property, talked to some folks, went for a drive, and everything was good. The scenery is just stunning, and there is light snow up on the mountains already.

Got back in, 2nd stop in Grand Junction went great. More interesting and pretty scenery. Got a shuttle over to our airline flight out and it was delayed for maintenance. We had an hour layover in Dallas. Flight got delayed a second time. Now we were pushing our layover. No other flight options for that night, even going to Chicago, Louisville or Cincinnati first, because all the planes were full because Taylor Swift is having a concert in Indy. You couldn't get into Indy.

We were now going to have a 15-20 minute layover now to get from Gate E to Gate A for our departure to Indy. A guy with a broken foot boards first, and can't get into the plane, can't get out of his wheelchair to walk up and board. It takes them 15 minutes to get him loaded. We all board, the pilots say they'll try to make up time, there are about 12 of us on that flight going to Indy. Me and the guy I was with, and the rest were Swifties. The gate person says they'll sometimes hold the next plane if they know their other plane is landing and has so many people on board.

We land, we have made up some time, we still have about 20 minutes before they close the doors. Our gate is occupied and we have to sit on the ramp for 15 minutes before they let us deplane. E and I are in first class, row 3, so when the door opens, we take off and we SPRINT across the airport terminal towards our gate, with the rest of the swifties behind us. I have bum lungs, and less than halfway there, my lungs tightened up and I couldn't breathe. I kept running anyway until I started getting fuzzy around the edges, and then I waved E forward and just went to a speed walk. My pulse went up to 144 last time I checked, and my usual resting rate is 56-64. I about passed out for a few minutes there. We have to get on a tram to get from E to A, run the rest of the way to our A gate, and I was able to run again after sitting on the tram for awhile. We get there and the gate is closed and nobody's out front. The plane is there, the jetway is there, but they closed it up right on time, didn't wait for anybody, didn't leave anyone there to talk to. Someone finally comes out, I tell them we've been here, and they told me "Customer Service is across from 20A" and I wanted to punch him in the face.

Went to Customer Service where they rebooked us for the remaining 2 seats on a 6:25 am boarding flight. Because we were first class they automatically did it, and one other lady got on that flight, and everyone else had to either drive from Dallas to Indy overnight, or fly into a few remaining seats to Cincinnati or Louisville and drive from there to Indy. It was a serious cluster, and it took them 20-30 minutes to do each one of us who was stranded overnight. They tried to just give us one room, E made them make it two.

We get hotel vouchers, and "food vouchers", which were $12 each. Like gee, thanks so much, now I can get that bottle of water at the airport I needed, and the hotel, "they have a restaurant". Well, they have a bar, it has one bartender and one waitress for all the tables which are all booked up. It took us 2 hours to get food at 10 pm. My room is smoky, but it doesn't matter, because I can only sleep until 3:30 am at which time I have to get up and be ready to leave on the shuttle back to the airport to get the morning flight out.

I didn't have any personal items with me except my glasses and contact solution, thank goodness I had those. I always carry snacks, charging cords, money, and headache meds, all of which I needed. But I got that stupid baby powder deodorant trail sized stick from the gift shop downstairs, and that was it. I had no make up or a comb or the melatonin I take to sleep or anything else.

Fell asleep around midnight, woke up at 1:15, went back to sleep, woke up at 2:45, half dozed until 3:30, got up. Got a shuttle to the airport, security, got on the FULL 6:25 am flight, no seats remaining. A ton of pink shirts, suitcases, and little girls and big girls and a few dudes all wearing Taylor Swift stuff. The flight attendant made a "welcome to the swifties" announcement, and our first class tickets were reverted to the last two available seats on the plane back in 19E and F.

It was a long flight to Indy. Landed at 10 am, had to get a ride (an hour) to where I'd left my car in Frankfort, then drive another hour home. I'm so tired I couldn't even nap. That tired where you're so tired you can't sleep? That's me today.

American Airlines didn't do us any favors, they knew we were landing late and could have held for a bit, a guy with a broken foot delayed us by the amount of time we could have made it, not moving a plane out of a gate delayed us again, Taylor Swift didn't help, and it was just a perfect storm of clusterfluck. And I cannot sprint long distance. Even when I was young and in decent shape, I could only sprint short distances. Now that I'm 50 and Fluffy, my lungs were like...dude...what are you thinking...I coughed the rest of the night from the bum lungs that were inflamed and irritated. And I didn't have any make-up on or with me, and I couldn't comb my hair, and my clothes were stale, and I felt like a homeless person. We were not amused, we did not have fun, and I Freaking HATE the airlines. Detest them.

But here are some pretty Colorado photos.