Mike Kennedy's travel diary. Yikes!
Mike almost skipped the meet due to a back
flare-up, but made the last-minute decision to use his
reservations and catch all the action in College Station!
Here's his account of the forgettable trek to College Station:

If I had known then what I know now, I'm not sure I would have made the decision to go.

Up at 6:30 a.m. and in the car by 6:50 a.m.

There was some traffic, but I reached the C-lot at the airport by 7:30 a.m. and was at the Continental Airlines terminal at 7:45 a.m. and stepped up the the automatic ticket dispenser. Inserted credit card and was shown a message stating that tickets were not being issued. I should have realized that this was not going to be your normal trip!

Went to Continental Airlines counter person and was told that the flight was delayed and might be cancelled and that I needed to go to the end of the line for ticketing passengers (including international passengers!) and get rebooked in case the flight was cancelled. This was a VERY LONG line that double-wrapped inside the terminal and then extended some 50 feet outside the terminal. :-/

For the next two-and-one-half hours, this line meandered toward the ticketing people. Remember, this included a whole plane load of people -- most of whom were just passing through Houston on their way to somewhere else! Meantime, we find out there was a fuel line problem on our aircraft and the flight that was delayed for two hours was first delayed another 4 hours prior, and then at around 10:30 a.m. was delayed again until 11 a.m.

Once I got to the ticketing people (about 11 a.m.), they put me on standby on a Houston-bound flight leaving a 12:55 p.m. (I was told I was No. 2 on the priority stand-by list). So I go to that gate and figure, "Let's just check to make sure everything is ok." So I stood in line for another hour and when got to the ticket person at the gate, she checked on my status and said, "There are at least 25 overbookings on this flight and you will never get on. What I can do is put you on America West at 3:50 p.m. to Phoenix, where you will change planes and get a 6:10 p.m. flight to Houston, getting you in at 10:50 p.m.."  Geez.

So now I schlep from the Continental Airlines ticket counter to the America West Airlines ticket counter with my three bags. After standing in a line for a few minutes, they announced to go directly to the America West gate and they will issue the boarding passes there. I get to the gate and she issues me boarding passes for both flights. As I am walking away from the gate with my boarding passes, she says, "Wait a minute. The flight to Phoenix is ok, but the flight from Phoenix to Houston is cancelled. However, I can get you on the 8:40 p.m. flight to Houston, arriving at 1:30 a.m." Again, I say "OK." What else can I say?

So I leave at 3:50 p.m. from L.A. to Phoenix, then get ready to leave from Phoenix at 8:50 p.m.. Then the announcement comes... "The flight will be delayed 30 minutes because the plane is late getting in from Houston." Ugh!

The plane arrives at 9:15 p.m. and we board, but we do not take off. Again, another announcement... It turns out the pilot who is on another flight has been delayed and will be delayed another half hour. So we sit on the plane from 8:30 a.m. to 10:15 p.m. before finally taking off, and then arrive in houston at 3 a.m. the next day. I get my car rental (after phoning the rental company to change my arrival time from 3 p.m. to first 6 p.m.... then to 9 p.m., then to midnight, and finally to 3 a.m.) and take the pleasant drive to College Station, arriving at 5 a.m., and getting to bed at 5:30 a.m.

Total time of the scheduled 7-hour trip: 22 hours...

"Mikey" wasn't aware I was going to post his travel woes on the website, but I figure he is deep asleep right now and won't see this before I yank it off after you've all read it.

Rich G.