An adventure with United Airlines

As some of you know, I have been on a whirlwind visit of the midwest the last few days. I flew to Chicago, gave a quick presentation to a board, drove to Madison Wisconsin the next morning, and then to Milwaukee Wisconsin to fly home. My drive from Chicago to Madison was an adventure. I had to stop 5 times for tolls. Some of you may think I am exaggerating, nope, there were really that many tolls. I forgot to get a roll of quarters before I left downtown, so I had to stop at a 7-11 and get cash and then quarters. Then I was off. I didn't know exactly how long it would take, but at 11:45 I realized I still had 45 minutes of driving, but was supposed to be there at noon. I made some calls to let them know of my delay. All was well. I toured around Madison and saw their meeting facilities, botanical garden and the UW campus. It is a cute small town. It is the same size as Spokane. They do have a trader joes and whole foods, which Spokane does not. I was a little jealous of that. When I left to drive to Milwaukee, my directions were not great to the freeway. I powered through and got on the right freeway. No tolls this time which was nice.

I returned my rental car, turns out you are penalized if you return it in a different state than you rent it. Hertz made a killing on my Hyundai Sonata! When I checked my bag for $15 at United, they pulled me aside to let me know that my flight was delayed (I was 2 hours early!!!!) But they would put me on a flight that was leaving in 10 minutes so I better run to the gate. Holy moly! I ran! When I got to the gate, they had a computer glitch. The gate person said "Go ahead and get on the plane, choose any seat you like" I was on United, not southwest, so I was confused. I got on the plane. There were only about 12 other people. Pretty wierd. Then they told everyone to spread out. They couldn't take off with everyone in the front. So we all scattered. Then we were out on the runway getting ready for takeoff and they announced it was a false alarm. They said we could use our phones and just hang out, it would be about 20 minutes until we would be cleared again. Pretty crazy.

The flight was only 20 minutes long. After arriving at O'hare, I realized that there are a ton of people here who have been delayed and bumped and cancelled. I couldn't find any plae to eat without a large line. O'hare is crazy. My flight to Spokane, everything that I have read and seen, I do not have a seat. When I checked in last night, I still didn't have a seat, but when I printed my boarding pass I did. I was worried I might not make it to Spokane, but it looks like I will. I am in O'hare right now, so lets hope I make it!