We arrive at the counter to find out the plane is delayed 20 minutes I mention that making our connection will be tight. The 20-something assures me we will be ok. We go through security and see that Subway is closed. We ask security about that and they say "Well, today they left at noon. How nice. This is the only source of food at Grand Junction airport so Dave and Ben leave security and drive to Taco Bell.
The plane is actually about 35 minutes late but the pilot assures us he can make up time. We cruise along at 37,000 feet and arrive on the ground in Dallas at about 8:05. Looking good for the 8:50 connection. Wait what's this? The pilots voice cackles over the intercom, "Well ladies and gentleman it seems there are no available gates in which to park. It will be about ten minutes for them to clear a gate.
Ten minutes go by, It's now 8:15--still in the realm of possibility to catch our connection. We begin to move. We make it close to the terminal and the plane stops. "I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, it seems a plane is blocking us from going any further. We will have to wait for it to move so we can clear it's wing span." 8:25 we begin to move hallelujah, we park at the gate. We all stand up. " Ladies and gentleman, it seems we have no one to put the blocks under our wheels and no walkway. We've asked for those services. We will let you know when we can deplane.
IS THIS A JOKE?
8:40 p.m. we deplane. We hot foot it to the sky link to our terminal and to our gate. We arrive at 8:50 and the door is closed - BUT the plane is there. We ask an agent - NOPE, YOU'RE NOT GETTING ON! Go to Gate such and such to find a new flight.
We go to that gate and we are about 4th in line for the one lady named "Truly." The line grows to about 30 people and still Truly is the only agent. We make conversation with her. She knows we are frustrated but we know she is the "middle man." She gets to where we are enjoying each other and she books us on a 4:15 p.m. flight the next day but tells us to try and fly stand by on the 10:00 a.m. flight. She is unable to help us with overnight arrangements as she is American and we flew in on American Eagle. She tells us she will watch the flights for us and book us on the 10:00 if it becomes avaialble. (Later we find out she booked us on the 1:00 p.m. as it became available - great job, Truly.)
We now have to walk way to another gate to see about accomodations. Did I mention I'm wearing a Fitbit? At the new gate they tell us they do not contract with the Hyatt (the hotel that is right at the airport.) We would have to take a shuttle, etc to go to the hotel they contract with. OR we can stay at the Hyatt and send our receipts in to American Airlines after the fact. We choose option B.
We follow the directions to the Hotel and Dave checks us in. He says I'd like two rooms with two Queen beds. So what did we get? 2 rooms with one queen bed in each so technically that is two rooms with two Queen beds, right? Dave goes back down to the desks and gets us two rooms with two queen beds in each room.. It is now about 11:15 p.m. The kids have not eaten and the restaurants are closed, but room service is available. We order two cheeseburgers with fries and three bottled waters for 65.00. While we wait, we RAID the mini bar. Almonds, cookies, beer, water - we are all smiling now. The room was OUT OF THIS WORLD with motorized roller shades (the Blind man sees blinds.) It was super, super nice. The room service guy comes at 11:40 p.m. He says, Hi, I'm Pedro. You can call me for anything you need, I say, "Oh great, all night long?" He smiles and says, "No, I get off at midnight." You just had to laugh. He was at our service for 20 more minutes.
We stay awake long enough to make sure Jessica made it into Detroit and Karl and Ramona have her and then we drift off to sleep in our incredibly comfortable beds.
Room service
our view from our room in the morning
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