09.02.2015 The Weather is Here- I Wish You Were Beautiful
Hey Now! Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. This adventure actually started out as Royal Hunting in the Desert, but as it unfolded, it mutated for reasons that will become obvious. Late VA weather here in VA is pretty unpredictable. The past week has been hot, humid, and really dry. I got up and put in 4 hours at work just to gloat. Traveling weather is perfect, from RIC to ATL to LAS there's no delays and almost 0% chance of rain. Almost. Sweet Ti and I bid goodbye to our Feline Family and head to RIC.
Haven't seen a cloud in the sky in days- until we get to Richmond. We Park n Go, TSA, and make it to the gate in record time.
Feed me Seymour....
Our flight departs at 2:59. The clouds appear. The aircraft doesn't. Then the lightening appears. The aircraft still doesn't. Jeff the gate dude appears, and announces that our aircraft is in ORF, 75 miles away. Couldn't land on account of said lightening. So I jump in line and re-book our connection. No problem, there's a flight leaving ATL at 7:50. Just get to paradise a couple of hours late. The departure time here is now 4:00. They put out a cart of goodies for our delay. We descend upon it, I'm cramming Kind Bars and peppermint patties into my backpack. 3:45- no aircraft. The weather has gone to shit here- there are no planes coming or going. Re-stock the goodie cart- this time Biscoffs! And water. I'm looking for more room in my bag. Now departure is 5:00. Sweet Ti gets on the horn with Delta as Jeff is swamped with re-bookers. We are on the list for the next- and last flight to Vega$ if we don't make our connection. But our 7:50 is only a couple of gates over in the same terminal. Jeff announces our aircraft has pushed away from the gate in ORF. More goodies appear. Playing cards and such. Now I'm cramming Sweet Ti's CPAP machine bag. Jeff announces our aircraft has returned to the gate due to mechanical issues. Departure is now 5:40. But the weather has cleared! The goodie cart has been decimated. Finally, our aircraft is in the air for the 14 flight to RIC. It arrives at 5:25. You have never seen so many pissed off people de-planing a regional jet. We are among the first to board, Sweet Ti is on the disabled list because of blood clots in her legs. She had hernia surgery in early August. We are finding our seats and our Flying Waitress Rebecca assists us. We become fast friends. She was born in Germany to Ethiopian parents. Knockout beautiful girl. She even looks up our connection and sure enough, it's 2 gates down. We may make it- if we can get this bird into the air! It takes forever, but we fianlly depart. The pilot comes on and informs us that he will floor it all the way to ATL to try to make up some time. He also informs us that they previously tried to land in RIC 2 times, but the wind shear turned them back to ORF. Ugh.
We make great time and are due to land at 7:45. A 5 minute turn around. Can we do it? The passengers who aren't making a connection are very courteous and allow us to de-plane ahead of them and we hobble into the terminal. I check the boards but can't find our flight listed. Panicing, it's 7:55. I grab a gateling and she looks it up. It's delayed. Perfect! And 3 gates down rather than 2. And not too full either. So we limp over to the gate and Sweet Ti puts on her best pitch for an upgrade. She retired early from American Airlines so she knows all the right moves. BINGO! We are bumped up to EconoCome. And they are pre-boarding in 5 minutes. Just enough time to piss and fill the water bottle for the flight. We even have an empty seat between us...
I mean this aircraft is only about 1/3 full. So boarding is quick, we are in the air in no time. These EconoCome seats have perks too. Besides lots of room, we get free booze and killer snackies. Our flying waitress soon appears with a basket of goodies and sets it down between us next to Stretch. "Help Yourselves!" And Sweet Ti orders up a bopple of Red Wine. I refuse to drink an A'Bdoul's, so I settle on a Co'cola. The proper Atlanta pronunciation. Meanwhile, Sweet Ti makes a new friend. Jocelyn is sitting across the aisle from us. They end up girl talking the entire trip across our nation while I veg out practicing DBDW using Video Poker Wizard on my new Ipod Touch and jamming out to the Grateful Dead's Fare the Well shows. We chased the sun westward. It won. The neon lights of the Valley appeared. We are here. Jocelyn follows us to baggage claim, she is picking up a Fox rental. We are using Alamo. She is a trip. Sort of like discombobulated. We find our bags and shuttle. Jocelyn needs to take another shuttle to Fox, so we bid her adieu.
I have pre-paid for our car, so we bypass the kiosk and grab a Hyundai Rice Rocket. ¿Roja o Blanca?
Y'all- meet Roja.
Roja and I take Dino Martinio Drivio over to our Hacienda for (most) of the next 10 days- Orleans. It's like 12:30 a.m.
First major score here is a room on the 9th. First off and last on on the right side elevators. All the rooms have by now been renovated here, and this room is about halfway down the long assed hallway facing the strip. I take everything up and it's time to crash. I've been up 23 hours, we missed the YAH promo too. But we are here. Outside, it's 84º.
Next:
09.03.2015 You Gotta Have Friends....