And Now....The Rest of the Story!

So, the broken airplane was apparently repaired late last night...and Crew Scheduling called our Captain to let him know that we would be ferrying the aircraft at 0800, arriving in Chicago (ORD) at 1000. The guys go out on the ramp to bring in the airplane so we can leave--and it has a flat tire. (I swear I did not bring the bad karma with me on this trip--I think it was my Captain...)

So, they have to fly up a tire from Texas. Crew Scheduling decides to deadhead me to Texas then to Chicago so I can make my very last turn. (A turn is when you fly from the base city to an "outstation" and then come back to the base.) They give me a 0930 departure, to arrive in Texas an hour later, which means I have to almost run from Terminal B to Terminal A to make the connection to Chicago. Well, our gate was occupied and by the time I got off the plane, the connecting flight was G-O-N-E. Crew Scheduling put me on the next flight, which means I would not make the turn I was scheduled to do, which meant I was done for this trip. My three day trip (which was a high time 22 hour trip) consisted of one flight to OKC and two deadheads.

Since I start a trip tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning, I can't fly home today and be back in time to start work in the morning. So, I am at a hotel in Chicago that offers an airline rate. I have to do this because I don't live in my base city. Fortunately, the rate is reasonable, and I don't usually have to do this very often.

UPDATE:

I am now home from my trip. Yesterday, we ended up in Nashville (BNA) and my First Officer and I went to the mall for a couple of hours. The Mikasa store (cups and plates and other china) was going out of business. Next time, please remind me what a pain in the *ss carrying china home on an airplane is! No matter if it IS 75% off plus an additional 10%!

By the way, my First Officer was a 23 year old woman--younger than my oldest daughter! She was cool to hang with, too!

Finished my trip this morning--don't fly again until Monday morning. After getting up at 3:45 this morning, it is time for my nap!