So I'm in Austin, TX right now at a conference. I flew in yesterday, but of course I had to take a connecting flight because it saived about $600 ($300 vs $900). So, I get on the plane, we taxi out and wait in the other kind of Atlanta traffic on the taxi-way for about 30 minutes. As we round the bend to the runway, we suddenly start to turn away from the runway and pull off to the side. Not a good thing. My connecting flight was about 2 hours after my first flight was scheduled to land so I wasn't worried.
So, we wait, and wait and wait. Finally, we get back in line. Mind you, there has been no communication from Mr. Pilot or his merry band. So, we inch our way up again, turn onto the runway, but we never accelerate past maybe 10 miles per hour. We leisurely cruise down the runway, turn to the gate, and Mr. Pilot decides to grace us with his insight. "As you've probably noticed, we didn't take off. We have a system malfunction and we're going back to the gate to have it looked at". So we go to the gate. We get a message that the maytag guy is there looking at the problem. After about 30 minutes, it's fixed and we pull back. Now, it's been about 2 hours since we were supposed to take off. No problem, I thought. There wasn't any air traffic left on the runway, we got to take off right away, and the scheduled landing time has some slack in it, so I'll be close but I should make it.
It's a pretty uneventful flight, except for sitting next to a very robust man with a very robust smell. When I'm waiting at the gate to get on the plane, I normally see quite a few incredibly hot ladies who are by themselves, but I've come to accept that I will never get to sit next to them. I think it may cost extra, or maybe you have to be a Mason or something to get that privilege. Anyhow, I'm doomed to sitting next to bubba on every flight I will ever take.
So, we start our descent about 30 minutes before my connecting flight takes off. It'll be close, but it's not far away. We land and I've got about 10 mintes to go. Still, I should be able to make it. So, we park the plane and everyone gets up to get their crap and we get the "we're sorry but the jetway is broken" message. Ugh. So, about 15 minutes go by and I accept that I'm going to be in hell for the next 12 hours.
The jetway get's fixed pretty quickly and I get off the plane and ask the agent if the flight is still in. She says yet. I'm happy and run to the other gate. I get on the plane and all is good.
So the rest of the flight is fine. We take off and land in a respectable time. Now I need to take a cab to my hotel. I don't know Austin from the moon. I'm going to the hotel in Round Rock. So, I sit back and have my eardrums blown out by the deaf cabby listening to the baseball playoff game as I watch the counter on the cab increasing like the Jerry Lewis telethon board. We finally get there and my bill is $55. Yikes. I could have rented a nice car for that. Ah well, at least I didn't die...
