Lost In Amsterdam

So I have another couple of hours in an airport and will be putting up pictures of all the traveling shortly, but first let me tell you about my trip home…or atleast back to the good ole US of A.

Let me start by saying that I’m in Charlotte, NC and will be for the next two hours. Let me also say that I should have been home about 18 hours ago…

The flight from Amsterdam left on time…even tho it was scheduled late…but then we sat on the runway for an extra hour, so of course, by the time I got through customs in DC, I had missed my connection to Nashville. Then I was given two options to be rerouted – one was through Charlotte supposed to arrive in Nashville at 10:30pm and the other through Knoxville arriving at 11:30pm. Thinking of my poor mother and father who were waiting in Nashville (mind you I was supposed to arrive at 5:30pm), I opted for the Charlotte flight. Mistake.

There was a storm in Charlotte, so we sat on the runway in DC until air traffic control let us takeoff. Then, we couldn’t land in Charlotte bc of the same storm and we circles around with about 7 other planes until we ran out of fuel an were diverted to Raleigh. We refueled in Raleigh and left again for Charlotte…not till about midnight though…got to Charlotte around 1:15am. Naturally, the Nashville flight was long gone…so I spent the night in Charlotte. Due to the weather and numerous flight delays, all the aiports were booked except for two – neither of which had shuttles – so by taxi I went to the Red Roof Inn…

Instead of being able to take the early flight to Nashville this morning, I had to take the 11:40am flight (arriving there at Noon central time) to coordinate with Fady’s flight time. However, my flight has been delayed AGAIN – so I am not leaving to Nahsville until 1:30pm – arriving at 2pm central time. Almost an entire day later than planned….

Oh America…what a welcome home…

(p.s. At all 5 or 6 of my security checks in the past two days, I was taken aside and patted down and my bags were selected for ‘random’ search. After 5 times in less than 36 hours….it’s not random anymore and the bags are safe, for God’s sake!!!)

(p.p.s. i miss good coffee already.)