Mondays Happen

I hate air travel. Period. I hate using the word hate because it implies such strong feelings so I don’t use it lightly. But in this case it’s the only thing that conveys my true feelings.

I spent a total of 31 hours over the last 2 days traveling. The good news: I was getting paid the whole time. The bad news: They don’t pay me enough for this….

All I had to do was go to 2 air force bases, sign some stuff off at each base, and be on my way. It was definitely not that simple.

It all started Monday morning. I was supposed to meet a guy from work at the airport to give him something. He was running 45 minutes late and he finally got through security as the last group of my plane was boarding. I gave him his crap (it wasn’t REALLY crap, but I was in a crappy mood by this point) and was one of the last 2 people to board. Little did I know this was only the beginning of my stress.

My first flight was from Salt Lake, through Minneapolis, to Minot, North Dakota. The flight to Minneapolis was smooth right up until we landed… then sat on the tarmac for 1 hour 15 minutes, causing me to miss my connection. Next flight? 9:30 at night (8 hours away). Thus, my arrival at the air force base by 4:00pm was not possible. And you try convincing an air force guy that he needs to stick around til I get there at midnight. They don’t take kindly to contractors, even though they’re the ones paying us to do their work for them. Whatever, sore spot, moving on…

The 8 hour layover in Minneapolis was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I got $15 from Delta for food and they upgraded me to first class on my next flight. So sweet of them… but they are still not my BFFs. I unfortunately finished my one book I’d brought with me for the trip (as I hadn’t planned on having a solid 8 hours to read) and had to purchase another. And I’m more of a library book borrower than a book purchaser.

Anyways, made it to Minot, and of course nobody from the air force was available, so I had to do the sign off in the morning before my 10:00am flight. Luckily that went pretty well and I was off to Minneapolis once more. Luckily I made my short connection this time and was off to Denver. I waited for the shuttle to the car rental place for 30 minutes (a ridiculous amount of time considering every other car rental place each had 3 shuttles pass me by) and then another 30 minutes waiting in line because they didn’t have in their records that I was a priority member. They told me I use to be a priority member but I wasn’t anymore and asked when the last time was that I rented with Avis. I said, “Yesterday, last week, two weeks ago, four weeks ago, 2 months ago and 4 months ago.” I think she thought I was kidding… but I wasn’t… it’s been a big travel year for me. Needless to say, I’m never renting from Avis again, it’s only Budget for me now, they’re awesome!

So, my hour delay in picking up the rental car and 1.5 hour drive to Cheyenne also meant that the air force was unavailable for the sign-off because they had all taken off early to enjoy Cheyenne’s Frontier Days (a week full of cowboy boots, wranglers, parades, rodeos, concerts, trucks, etc.) So, after all that I had to leave the sign-off in the hands of someone local and drive back to Denver (another 1.5 hour drive) to make my late flight back to Salt Lake City.

Good news: two different boys (approximately my age) struck up flirty conversations with me. 1 in the airport and 1 on the plane.

Bad news: they were both married.

Old news: guys are weird

As I landed in Salt Lake at 11:30pm I was just so relieved the whole trip was over. I slowly made my way to baggage claim and as I passed all the families waiting for their loved ones to de-plane I noticed a few appearingly single men of approximately my age also waiting. And I thought, “Too bad I can’t just pick one to take home with me!”

…There were some good ones, too! (Le Sigh!)