December - out with the cold....

A long time ago, I declared I would not return to the Midwest during the winter. If I remember correctly, the impetus for this decision was three consecutive years of leaving the warmth of Arizona for a chilly Thanksgiving in Chicago or Michigan and, inevitably, returning with the flu, a cold, or pneumonia.

This year, thinking I would be leaving for Indonesia on January 6, I decided to forgo this stance and travel back to Michigan for the weekend before Christmas to spend time with family I would not likely see again for quite some time. Big mistake.

Seeing family was fine; the weather, not so much. We arrived on a Thursday, to 6 inches of fresh snow. Friday brought six more inches. Saturday was not nearly as bad, with just four inches of fresh snow. By Sunday morning, we were looking forward to our flight later in the afternoon to return to the relative warmth of Arizona. Six more inches and blizzard conditions resulted in a cancelled flight. That's when the fun began.

When you travel to Grand Rapids, you have limited options when attempting to leave by air. The city is small, the airport is smaller, and the only direct flights are to airline hubs - Newark, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Chicago, Memphis and Houston. All but two are in cold weather climes. And, on Sunday, all flights were cancelled, and nothing available until Tuesday.

The weather report for Monday was 2 degrees with 4-6 inches of snow. What was more interesting, and concerning, was the forecast for the rest of the week: Tuesday, 4-6 inches expected, Wednesday, another 4 inches, Thursday "significant" snow expected. If 4-6 inches isn't significant, I don't want to know what is.

On Tuesday, we arrived at the airport and, luckily, our flight was not cancelled. I looked at the departure board and all flights to Chicago were cancelled due to weather. I looked at the radar image of the weather and saw why - a HUGE snow storm over Illinois...headed our way. Our flight was available and showing as "on time".

We checked in, checked our bags (paying the $30 fee for first bags), and went to our gate. As our flight got closer, the time got delayed by an hour. Then the snow began. Then the flight is delayed another hour. And then they close the runways to clear them of snow. Then the flight is delayed another hour. I'm beginning to think the storm from Chicago will hit us before we get a chance to leave.

Continental gives us meal certificates to use in the airport, hoping to placate us. Then they realize we will all miss our connecting flights, so they attempt to rebook us. Doesn't work, no available flights out of Houston the next day on Continental. Eventually, they book us on a separate airline.

We finally leave Grand Rapids after a three hour delay and arrive in Houston. Once there, the airline staff arranges a hotel for us. I ask where I can get my luggage. They inform me it has been checked through to Phoenix, so I'll have to pick it up there. I explain that I have to brush my teeth, change my clothes, etc now that I am staying overnight. They give me more meal vouchers and tell me that if I want my bags, I'll have to go to the baggage assistance counter and have them send someone to retrieve. Oh, and the baggage assistance in the terminal I'm in has gone home for the evening, so I'll have to go to a different terminal.

45 minutes later, I'm at a new terminal, giving baggage assistance information about my bags. They inform me it will require roughly 45 minutes to retrieve them. So, we wait. After we get our bags (luckily, we did get ALL of them), I call the hotel and ask for their shuttle. They tell me it will be about 20 minutes. We wait at the pickup point for 20 minutes, no shuttle. 25 minutes - no shuttle. I call them again. Van was full, so they have to make a return trip. 45 minutes after we arrive, the van finally picks us up - and a number of other passengers - and takes us to the hotel.

At the hotel, I'm the last one in line, and wait another 45 minutes to get our room key. By the time we finally got to bed, it was after 3 AM. Luckily, I had the foresight to book a noon departure out of Houston, instead of an 8 AM flight. I schedule a wake up call for 9 AM, and then set the alarm in the room for 8:30 AM.

At 8:30, alarm goes off. Wake-up call never happens. We arrive at the airport, check in, pay ANOTHER $30 to check our bags and make our way to security. We end up begin the group "randomly" selected for further screening, and spend the next 20 minutes having our bags and our persons searched. We finally get to the gates and have $60 in airport vouchers to use for breakfast.

We buy our breakfast - $20, and I start trying to sell the remaining $40 in certificates for $.50 on the dollar. 80% of the people I ask - who are standing in line for food - decide they would rather pay full price than save themselves half by buying from me. The 20% who did take advantage of my offer ended up buying the remaining $40, one of them was nice enough to do it for full price, so I now had $30 cash.

Flight out of Houston was on time. All in all, we were supposed to arrive in Phoenix on Sunday night, and we finally arrived on Wed. afternoon. We missed two Christmas parties, our anniversary dinner, and I missed 2 days of work.

I don't think I need another reminder why I don't want to travel to the Midwest in the winter.