Last time we went to Waynesburg we flew ourselves there. Took us seven days and it was a blast, visiting friends and new states along the way. This time we decided to do it the fast way, taking the airlines.
Checking in the luggage was fast and the lines at the security checkpoint were small. I was taken aside for an extra search and I think it was not because of my suspicious appearance. My personal theory is that the screeners had a bet going on as to whether what they saw in the X-ray machine were stress balls or hard-boiled eggs. Whoever picked the eggs won.
Getting to our gate one hour early and seeing our plane already there was reassuring. Expedia had listed our flight as being 90% on time and I had been a little worried since we only had an hour window for our connection in Phoenix. I was able to relax, since I was now confident we would make our connection, and went to look for a book for Sharon.
Once we were on board the captain was happy to announce that they had just found a problem with the radio and it would be just fifteen minutes for them to swap it. Fifteen minutes minutes in airline speak apparently is one hour in real world time, and our connection window disappeared with a poof.
They actually made up some of the lost time and we arrived at gate A7 in Phoenix with 15 minutes to spare. Our connecting flight was at gate B26 because the gods only let connecting flights to be at a nearby gate if one of the flights is early. So a mad dash across the airport ensued and I have to say it was tough on Sharon. With her treatment she doesn't have much energy these days, and that dash took a lot out of her. We made it, though, about 30 seconds before they closed the plane's door and sat on the first two available seats.
We took off and were on our way to Pittsburgh. I was concerned, as I was sitting away from Sharon but the very nice passenger next to her offered to change places with me, even trading an aisle seat for a middle one in the process. I wish I could have done something for him in exchange.
Arriving at Pittsburgh was uneventful. Usually we had to deal with thunderstorms (once we had to wait by the gate for 30 minutes because a storm closed the ramp and there was no one to attach the gate to the plane), but this time there were no problems. Even our luggage arrived, something I was not confident was going to happen.
And then, after the car rental agency added fee after fee to our rate, effectively doubling it in the process we were finally on our way to our hotel in Waynesburg. One thing I always enjoy about driving down there, by the way, are the names of the towns. Pennsylvanians come up with really odd names. We saw signs for Canonburg, California, Laboratory and my favorite, Eighty Four. One hour later we were at our hotel, I put Sharon to bad and went to Micky Dees in search of food.
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