I was all packed and ready to go. I logged on to get my boarding pass/e-ticket and learned that the flight wasn't in the flow. What does that mean? No idea. Quite freaked out, I called my girlfriend (JA) and gave her the news and then decided I should figure out what I was suppose to do. Of course, my girlfriend thought I was pulling an April Fool's joke on her! On her, or on me???
I went to my son's swimming class since I would be missing his final one the following day. I spent most of the hour talking with his teacher, since the night before at P/T conferences apparently wasn't enough. She told me how she thought again about how she may have addressed my son in front of the class and admitted she really wasn't sure how it all played out and was sorry. I had gotten past it after addressing it with her the night before. We talked about my son and how he was doing and I informed her of my upcoming vacation. She said she would keep an eye on him - although there were only two more days of school before break. She felt, like I did, that his emotional issues were likely due to him being scared of me leaving. My son got out of the pool and walked over to me, his eyes all red. I asked him if he was OK, at which time we both started to cry. Saying goodbyes are so hard. Everytime I think about that moment, I get emotional. I was able to say goodbye one last time after he had dressed.
I then swung by JA's house and we chatted for a bit. I then grabbed some shrimp friend rice (yummy, yummy) and hit the road for the airport. Can I just say that eating fried rice with a fork while driving isn't a good idea? I arrived at the airport about 3p.m. for my 7:00p.m. flight. The 4:00p.m. flight was going, but then was delayed and eventually canceled despite the plane being there. The 4:00p.m. became the 7:00p.m. so I made it to Chicago just fine. My flight out of Chicago into London was scheduled to leave at 9:30 or so. The FAA decided to do an inspection of the 777 and we were on a "short delay", which became longer and longer. Eventually about midnight, the flight was canceled as all 777's were grounded. Since I had just dozed off, I was conscious enough to know that I needed to get in the VERY long line to see about rebooking for tomorrow and getting a hotel assignment. While in line I called travelocity since I had the insurance on the flight ~ only to learn that flight insurance doesn't have anything to do with "interruptions". After a bizarre trek around O'Hare with two other single women, we found our way to the shuttles and I made it to the hotel. I called the tour company and informed them of the delay to cancel my pick-up transfer in the morning in London. As I also had trip insurance, they will cover the missed day and any incidentals not covered by the airport as long as I fill out the claim information they would be mailing out (funny thing is - I haven't received anything on the claim despite that being 13 days ago!).
The hotel was fine and I was offered breakfast, lunch and dinner vouchers. I did manage to rebook a flight the following day while wandering around the airport. Good thing I was following the others and not leading! My options were three flights - 4, 6, 9 with the 6 being a 767 and the others being 777's. As no one knew when the 777's would be back in flight, I booked the 6p.m. out. The 4 did end up going, but better safe than sorry. I think had I taken the 4 I would have had trouble with my pick-up.
I managed to get to bed about 4a.m. (5:00a.m. Michigan time).
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