The past couple of  weeks have  been a whirlwind .  First off—we have an offer and contract on our house in Mason City with a set closing date in late July.  I never believe that anything is actually official until the money changes hands but I am proceeding with the idea that this IS going to happen.  I could not be happier that Chris and I are finally going to be able to move on to the next chapter of our lives.  

This past weekend we were in New York for Micah’s graduation.   We both flew separately there as Chris was seeing customers in New York and I was having fun with the North Iowa Bloggers.  It’s what I do.  But flying back to Alabama was a couples trip and that was nice. For awhile.

Micah and Wendy – the graduates!

I write this tale because I know you all love my travel adventures.  Monday brought fog to NYC and our flight out of Laguardia ended up being delayed repeatedly.  When I say repeatedly I mean a lot of times.   We finally made it out 10 hours after our scheduled departure time which meant we were not going to make our short flight from Atlanta to Dothan so my husband, being the logistics expert that he is, called Delta and canceled that flight so that our bags would arrive with us in Atlanta and stay with us.  He booked a hotel room with Hilton, actually selected the room and checked into it and rented a car for the next morning so we could drive to Dothan.

We were in the company of many who were in a similar situation.  Trust me. When fog or weather sets in flights get all crazy.  We made it to Atlanta and discovered our bags had indeed gone on to Dothan and were sitting in the airport there. Sigh.  So we headed to grab a taxi to the hotel and at least get some sleep.

Once we got there we discovered a very frazzled desk clerk and another guy who was on our flight.  Apparently there was some “glitch” and our rooms were no longer available even though we had booked and secured an actual room number on line.  It was now 2 am Tuesday and we had been either in an airport or in the air since 9 am Monday.  Yawn.

The desk clerk had booked us rooms in another Hampton Inn about 14 miles away—the closest hotel with any rooms available and they comped us the room so what else could we do?   The other gentleman already had a rental car so he offered to take us with him to the hotel so we did not have to wait for the shuttle. That worked fine and we rode with a random stranger from Buffalo, NY.

We got a few hours of sleep, took another taxi back to the airport to get our rental car and then drove to the Dothan airport where we turned in that rental car, collected our luggage and  picked up Chris’s car which he had left there the week before.  You still with me?  This was Tuesday.

Wednesday we were scheduled to fly to Puerto Rico for a combined work and pleasure trip.  Our flight was an easy one—a bit over 3 hours from Atlanta and this time we just drove to Atlanta with no Dothan connection .   We were seat mates, had a great easy flight and arrived in beautiful San Juan at 9:30 pm.   We waited to collect our bags in baggage claim. And waited. And waited.  It seems that “someone” had loaded the priority luggage behind 2500 pounds of cargo.   Yes, those yellow tagged bags that are all supposed to be taken off the plane first were last.  But then they came finally and we were happy.  Until one of Chris’s bags did not show up.

Apparently his one bag, which was actually checked under my name instead of his, never made it on the plane.  The other 2 bags we checked and watched get tagged and placed on the belt at the same time made it. They have no idea where it is.  It’s odd.  It’s a conundrum and we are trying to be hopeful.  The good thing is he packed his professional clothes in that bag and really does not need them until Monday so they have that many days to get them to us.  Of course we are staying 3 different places during our stay in Puerto Rico so finding us might be an adventure in and of itself.

So once again I reiterate—pack spare underwear.  In your purse or briefcase.  You never know when you will need them.  Remember Chicago?

A dork with two horses in Puerto Rico.

I might go “unplugged” for a few days while I am in Puerto Rico.  I think you might be able to understand why I feel the need to do that.  Don’t worry.  I will be back.  You can’t get rid of me that easily.