13 hours.
I ended up getting an early flight home … 1:16pm out of San Diego, flying through Atlanta. Our flight in San Diego left late because a flight attendant was missing in action. Go figure. But the pilot said we’d make up time, not to worry.
We flew on a Song Airlines airplane, operated by Delta. It had DirectTv in the seat and it was FREE! Woohoo! I snoozed for an hour, read for an hour, lounged for an hour, then watched tv for 2 hours.
Wait … that adds up to 5 hours. But it’s only a 4 hour trip back. How did that happen? Because we circled the airport for over an HOUR avoiding the thunderstorms beneath the plane. 🙁 So, for an hour I watched the sun “come up” then the tail cast a shadow on the left wing, then repeat, and repeat and repeat and repeat. Around and around and around to the right we went. We were in the holding pattern.
Ron was “watching” via computer and told me we were circling at 30k feet!
We were finally cleared to land and once we did land (which going through the clouds was ROUGH) I looked back outside and counted at least 9 planes all heading in. Whoa!
Once on the ground, I headed to my gate for my already delayed flight out of Atlanta to home … my 10:30pm flight had been pushed to 10:55pm. Well, once I reached the gate, they announced the flight attendants for our plane were in Savannah due to the need to refuel and would be in “shortly.” ETA? 12am departure.
At 10:45pm, they announced that not only were our flight attendants delayed, but our PLANE was in Florida due to the need to refuel. So we were not only waiting due to our own delay, but due to our plane AND our flight attendants. 🙂 Oh well. That’s why laptops are awesome. I pulled mine out, my tablet out and worked on wedding photographs right there in the airport!
Eventually our plane arrived and shortly after our flight attendants and were were boarding … at about 12:15am and departed shortly thereafter, getting into RDU about 1:15am and I got home just prior to 2:00 am.
13 hours and I was TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRED. 🙂