... And Apparently not be able to Leave

Iowa Trip Part 3

When I went to check in online, I noticed my flight was delayed, meaning I would miss my connection in Denver. Well, we called (I can't keep from calling United's helpful customer service) and the guy said there were no more connections, and I would just have to wait in Denver until morning. He said they would give me a hotel and food voucher, but there was nothing else I could do about it.

We decided to head to the airport and see if I could catch a flight to a different city and get back before work the next morning. Once there, the lady was even less helpful than on the phone and said they wouldn't even give me a hotel voucher. She said when it was weather related (there was no bad weather in Iowa City, but some other city that set things back) they didn't give any form of compensation and that I would just have to be stranded in the Denver airport. I decided that was absolutely ridiculous and declined a night in the airport. Luckily Erin and Abe graciously offerred to let me stay with them another night and a ride to the airport the following early morning. The plan was to take the first flight out of Iowa, catch an early flight in Denver and be able to be at work by 10:30ish (remember I was supposed to be back in town for a full day). I arrived the next morning, only to encounter another delay getting out of Iowa City. By the time we took off, I knew I would have approximately 12 minutes between my first flight landing and my second one taking off. Amazingly, we somehow made up a few minutes in the air, and we landed with 16 minutes to go.

There were a handful of other people on the plane in the same situation, and luckily, the other passengers were kind enough to let us off first. We landed at gate B-88 and I had to get to gate B-47. The older gentleman behind me had to get to B-46 in the same amount of time as me, so we took off sprinting through the terminal together. I felt bad, but I quickly had to leave him behind as I darted between the other people in the airport. I ran and ran and ran. I am pretty out of shape and thought I was going to pass out, but I kept running and running. When I approached 47, much to my dismay it didn't say Salt Lake. I stopped long enough to check a screen and discover the gate was changed to B-17. Again, I found my self running. At least as a form of encouragment, as I dashed people, many would yell "Go, go, go! You can make it!"

Somewhere around B-30 my phone started ringing. I almost didn't answer, but since it was a coworker, I decided I better. I breathlessly answerd, "Hey ---." To which he replied, "Hey Brenna, where are you?" I barely got out, "I'm running through the Denver airport trying to catch my flight which leaves in 5 minutes." He then said, "Well, we're having a team leader meeting, and you're not here. When are you going to be here?" I couldn't help but think, "Seriously? I can barely speak, and I told you I'm not in Utah, my flight is about to leave, I still have about 20 gates to go, and you're asking when I'm going to get to the meeting?" I contained my mean thoughts though and managed to get out, "Well, I'm not going to be able to attend team leader meeting today...." We then said our good byes and hung up.

As I approached my gate, I was excited to see a line of people outside the gate door. I ran up and was informed by a sweet elderly couple that the flight was delayed... At that point I didn't know whether to be happy or cry.

After the delay, I finally made it back to Salt Lake. The problem was, Matt was originally going to pick me up (on Monday night), but he had to work Tuesday morning, so he couldn't come and get me. Also, there is essentially only one time a week that my mother has something that has to happen at that time, Tuesday morning, so she couldn't pick me up. The rest of my friends were either at school or work. Matt drove his truck to work (in downtown Salt Lake), so I was going to take the bus to his work and drive back so I could get back to my office, but according to the bus schedule, it would take 1 1/2 hours to get into downtown. So, I ended up sitting around the Salt Lake Airport waiting for another hour until my mom was able to get me. She then drove me straight to work, where I arrived just a short time before I had to conduct an interview.

As I sat and waited, I couldn't help but laugh at how I mistakingly thought I somehow had a whole trip with United with no glitches. At least, at that point, with so many things going wrong, breathless phone conversations and getting more exercise than I had in quite some time, I couldn't help but laugh and think, "Well, at least I have a fun story to tell...."