Up since 3am. Left for airport at 4:30am. An hour later I was rolling my luggage into the terminal. I made it through security and had a seat at the gate. At precisely the time the plane was supposed to begin boarding, a voice came over the PA and announced that our plane was flagged for maintenance and would not be available to fly for at least 3 additional hours. An inconvenience, but I had an 8 hour layover in Chicago anyway so that worked in my favor.
Fast forward another hour and we learned that the maintenance crew had to be flown in from Tennessee and would be required to take a rest period before working on the plane. The 3 hour window turned into an 8 hour delay. There was no hope of catching my train in Chicago. That made 0-2 on train segments I would be experiencing. After standing in line for what felt like an hour, I was advised that I’d have to call their main number to arrange travel due to my requirements.
Fortunately, the person who received the call was very helpful and took care of what I needed without an issue. So now after cancellations, delays, and more cancellations, I now have a new departure date. August 25th at 7 in the morning.
On the brighter side, the latest cancellation resulted in additional segments being available to add to the back end of the trip. So now I have added two additional cities to explore. What will tomorrow bring? Only time will tell. I pray that it will bring the airplane in on time so that I can finally get this mental wellness trip under way.
Off The Rails 