The Plan Was Simple

The plan was simple. I had buddy passes to get from Salt Lake to Houston and from Houston to Kansas City. From Kansas City I had a rental car already reserved to make the 3-hour drive to the middle of nowhere Kirksville, Missouri.

That was the plan.

I got to Houston just fine, but that’s where the adventure started. I was supposed to get a flight around 9 in the morning, but apparently, it was stormy in Kansas City, so pilots were taking on extra fuel just in case. Extra fuel = extra weight = less people. I missed the first flight by 2 seats. No problem though, there were 4 more flights that day, and at very worst I’d for sure get on the flight at 7:45 that night, it had something like 30 open seats.

The next flight came and went, so did the second. I had been in the airport for 6 or 7 hours at this point and with each flight I got bumped from, the gate would change and I’d have to carry all of my luggage across the Houston airport. So there were 2 flights left – one at 5:30, and the one at 7:45 that was supposed to be a guarantee.

But apparently it’s tropical storm season in Houston. The weather turned nasty and the airport was anarchy. Tornado warnings? You bet. The 5:30 flight got postponed to 6:00. Then 6:30. The rain kept coming. Soon the board said 7:00 and there was talk of canceling the flight. This was bad news folks, if it got cancelled, all the people from that flight would roll over into the 7:45 flight and I’d be stuck in Houston. All I had the next day was a medical school interview. No big deal right? Just my future. Another worry was my rental car in Kansas City. Even if I DID get on a flight but it got in really late, I’d have no way of getting to Kirksville.

When the flight got postponed to 7:15 things weren’t looking good. I decided to risk it. I hauled myself across the airport to see the situation with the “guaranteed” 7:45 flight. By the time I got there, I checked the board again and that first flight was now saying 7:33. I figured if it were delayed ANY more, they would just roll it into the 7:45 flight and I’d be hosed. Yuck.

But somehow I got on! In fact I had a whole row if seats to myself. As far as I can tell, two planes flew from Houston to Kansas City at pretty much the same time. I landed in Kansas City at about 10:30 or so, had my car by 11:00, and after a LONG day at the airport I still had a 3 hour drive to make.

When Jen was looking at hotels for me in Kirksville, we had a hard time finding any rooms. In order to guarantee a spot, we went ahead and paid for a Days Inn. By the time I finally got there, I was a dead man walking. When they assigned me room #200, all I wanted was a clean bed. Too bad there was no such thing as room 200. Half the hotel was under construction and room 200 was gutted. When I told the hotel clerk, she seemed surprised that I wanted a new room. I opened up the second room and there was someone asleep in the bed. I opened up the THIRD room on a rather large and hairy man who asked “EXCUSE me?” By this point it was nearly 2:00am and I had dragged my luggage and myself all over the hotel. The FOURTH room? Under construction. So the manager got involved. She got a bunch of keys and just started opening rooms while I waited in the lobby. All other hotels in Kirksville were booked. I took a serious look at the possibility of sleeping on a couch in a hotel lobby. In my suit.

When she finally found me a room, she explained that even though it was a non-smoking room, I could go ahead and smoke if I wanted to – for all my troubles. The room was over in the construction zone and the only reason she had it still open was because the construction workers were using its window to run hoses and chords throughout the hotel. She said not to worry, she’d put a sign on my door and on my window to keep construction workers out. Now that I had a room, the manager and I got back in the elevator to go BACK to the lobby to sign some papers. She started looking a little confused and upset, “I don’t know why this elevator doesn’t work sometimes, we might have to take the stairs.” I politely replied “Um….I think you just have to push the button.” Down we went.

So she offered me a discounted rate, but she only knew how to get it down to $50. I had originally paid $58. I saved 8 dollars. At least she offered me a beer!

-Jonathan