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July 11, 2008
La La La Hey
Could I have been lost somewhere in Paris?
Not with Nuvi, no. (My ex updated it for me about a month ago, and when he gave it back to me he had changed the vehicle on the display. He said he first considered the wood-paneled station wagon, but in the end decided on the short bus.)
I finished my class in St. Louis today about 3:00 and headed to the airport pondring perhaps getting an earlier flight. I turned in my rental car, got on the bus, got off at the terminal, went inside and checked the boards to find both the 3:00 hour and the 4:00 hour flights to Atlanta cancelled. I tried to check in for my flight at the kiosk and got a message saying that there was some problem with my flight.
So I got in line, and while waiting got on the phone to the travel agent.
Weather in Atlanta, it seems. The travel agent says there is a flight on American through Chicago that would get me home at ten something. Except it left in 45 minutes. Not enough time to make that one.
Everything else headed the right direction is sold out. I tell her I'll continue to wait in line and see what the agent said.
My flight is delayed over two hours. I'd miss my connection in Atlanta, but could drive home from there. I did the math lightening fast in my head and figured I'd be home by about 3 AM.
But there was more math to be done, of the probability variety.
There was the chance that I'd wait around until 8:45 PM, and that flight wouldn't leave at all. Then I'd be stuck in STL for the night, and considering I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow night, that thought didn't appeal to me at all.
I walked away from the agent without checking in or making any decisions and went outside to ponder.
While reaching in my bag for my phone charger, Nuvi jumped out at me and told me that if I drove home (yes from St. Louis), that I'd get here at 4:13 AM.
So I went to the rental car counter, booked a car, and when the guy printed my receipt he said, "wow you got a good deal. Hey, Steve, guess how much her rental is for a one way drop in Greenville?"
Steve didn't venture a guess. I didn't either, but had I, I would have been WAY off.
Fifty six bucks for a mid-size car.
I ask, "does it have tires?"
He says yes, four of them.
"And an engine?"
"Yep. And air conditioning. Can you believe that Steve?"
I really don't think Steve cared. Nor did I. Delta refunded me 400 dollars for the flight I wasn't going to take. Anything less than that for the car was a bonus.
So I got in the car and drove home. Stopped once for gas and two Red Bulls at about midnight, found a great radio station in Nashville, and apart from the fact that I couldn't see the Great Smoky Mountains as I drove through them, it wasn't a bad drive.
I pulled into the rental car return spot in Greenville at 4:14 AM. (Nuvi is like magic sometimes.)
I filled out the little rental return thing, and as I walked toward the terminal noticed an unusual volume of people inside.
As the sliding doors opened, a guy was walking out with a checked bag in his hand. And I could see behind him many people still waiting at baggage claim. I asked him where he had just come from.
"American flight from Chicago. Should have been here at ten something."
I said thanks, dropped my keys off at the counter, found Jalenpeno right where I left her, paid the parking machine, and headed south once more.
When I pulled in my driveway there was standing water on it, and I could see in the headlights that the mulch in the front yard was almost black. Involuntarily my mind went back to the moment at the ticket counter in St. Louis almost exactly 12 hours previous and it played the drive home.
When I opened the door, had any creatures been watching or listening, they would have seen me smile largely and say out loud, "yeah, but we had RAIN."
And everything was okay.
La la la hey.
Written by Angela Tanner. July 11, 2008 04:58 AM