annatravelslux

I guess going 30 years never missing a flight is a fairly good track record. I was about due for this. What a confluence of events. California is in the middle of a historic drought and the rains have finally come; on my travel day. Yay? This morning required a solid four hours to reach SFO from the north bay town that we live in. This route is normally 90 minutes. Much to my consternation, the arrival time the gps suggested continually got later and later even though we were slogging forward slowly but surely through the gray and wet web of cars jamming the roadways. The gate was due to close at 12:50pm for our 1:50pm flight. We threw in hope’s towel finally at 12:20, after numerous calls to the airline and our booking agency, and an utter lack of empathy from the traffic and weather gods. We got another flight, and our pocket books are a bit lighter. Who knew the adventures would start so soon?

As I write these words, I am looking on the bright side of all this (though believe me, that was not my attitude earlier). A few snarky (I vie to reach my snark idol’s level someday), and a few genuine takeaways, which I will let you the readers be the judge of what should be categorized where.

1. We are now incredibly early and ahead of schedule for our newly booked midnight flight. We shall be the first people at the check in counter when it opens (yes, it is in our line of sight).
2. The new flight is on an airline I much prefer to the flight we missed.
3. The red eye is a far superior departure when flying to Asia. Meal, beer, sleeping aid, and ten hours later, Hello Taipei!
4. Newly gained empathy for those who have ever felt the utter despair of sitting in a car helpless while the wheels of the travel universe spin right on without you.
5. Firsthand knowledge of the beautiful safety net that trip insurance can be. HOW I WISH I HAD PURCHASED IT THIS TIME! I recommend it to people on almost a daily basis and now I have an excellent personal anecdote to include.

As I said to my travel companion, Brandon, hopefully this will be the purging of all bad travel juju here at the very beginning of our journey. Hiccups always happen, but this was a hell of a first jolt. Here’s to two months of a better adventure than its beginning.