Thursday

Well I flew home today. What an exciting adventure. I got to the airport around 6AM to wait in line to fly standby on the 7:30AM flight instead of my 12:30pm flight. I waited and finally made the earlier flight. It was very cold and the flight people had to de-ice the plane. The snow from the night before was also on the ground. I have decided that I really enjoy the snow and the cold a lot more than the darn heat in Arizona! So, I made it to Chicago around 9:30AM and tried to get a non-stop flight from Chicago to Phoenix that was leaving at 10AM. I ran from concourse C to concourse B with my backpack and carry-on, but the flight was full. So I had to go back to concourse C to find out when the next flight was. The airline agent told me that the next flight left around 12pm. So I had to go back to concourse B to find that flight. As I was waiting on the standby list, a passenger’s wife told her husband that another passenger had left his luggage unattended. Oh my!!!! What a mess. The guy told two TSA agents who chased the guy down. He was from out of the country (my guess is Eastern Europe) and did not speak English very well at all. The TSA agents were searching the guy’s luggage and the guy himself. Then more TSA agents arrived and Chicago Police Officers as well. At one time, there were about 12 law enforcement agents surrounding this guy. I was like if they shut down this gate, I will not be a happy camper. The agents cleared an area around the guy just for safety of other passengers. I felt bad for the guy who was being searched because all he wanted was some food and didn’t speak English. The original guy who complained kept on asking the TSA agent in charge what was going to happen. The agent was getting annoyed with the guy who complained and told him that his flight was safe and secure. So finally the 12pm flight came and I was ON THE PLANE with a seat assignment but had not sat down because someone else was in my seat. So I ended up getting OFF the plane. I thought that I would never get out of Chicago. Finally I had my original flight at 2:30pm come and we left for Denver. There were 135 people on the standby list for the flight to Denver. Good thing I had my ticket confirmed! We were a little late getting to Denver and I had about 5 minutes to make my connection. The gate I was supposed to be at was gate 18. I landed at gate 46. So….again I RAN to make my connecting flight with my jacket and carry-on luggage. Unfortunately, the connecting flight was delayed by 30 minutes, so I didn’t need to run to make the flight. Then the flight from Denver left for Phoenix and I finally got home!!! Savannah came and picked me up and then we went home. I was so tired and went to sleep after getting home and unpacking a bit.