Sunday September 24, 2006

Our Airport Saga

Friday Night

We don’t usually choose to begin a flight at night, but had free air miles, and this was the only departing choice for getting home from Grand Rapids, MI.

We said goodbye to the thirteen remaining staff (who were flying out of Muskegon after lunch), drove our rented car to Chaplain Kevin and Sally Van Horn’s house in Grand Rapids, and enjoyed lunch and the afternoon with them, Chaplain Mike and Florence Foisy (Chilliwack, BC), and Chaplain Bill & Gertie Thomas (Edmonton, AB).  The six of us had flights out of Grand Rapids between 7:45 and 8:00 PM.

This is were the Saga began.

Because our 8 PM American flight was canceled, they put us on United.  However, that flight was delayed until 9 PM, due to bad weather in Chicago.  (It was originally scheduled for 6:30 PM, and passengers who arrived on that flight had been in the plane since 4:30 PM.)

I found out later, that Foisy’s and Thomas’ got a motel in Grand Rapids because their flights were also canceled.  I understand their flights were uneventful on Saturday.

Just before leaving Grand Rapids, I got a phone call from American Airlines saying our flight out of Chicago was also canceled – due to the weather.  Since they did not have an available flight until Saturday afternoon, they put us on an 11 AM flight with United.

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 Leaving Grand Rapids in the rain at 9 PM

Arriving in O’Hare at 10 PM – after they had a three-hour shutdown – was quite an experience.  There were people everywhere, and most airlines were shutting down for the night, so people either found motels or stayed in the airport.

We opted to stay in the airport to get on standby status as soon as possible.

We found chairs and slept off and on between midnight and 4 AM, along with hundreds (probably thousands) of other people.