Another trip from hell

Today was my flight back to San Francisco, and I was very worried about having more problems. My flight wasn't until 2:15 PM, and I was at the Portland Airport by 10:00 AM, so I didn't think that there would be a problem. However, shortly after I arrived, I noticed on my computer (Yes, I paid the $6 day pass for wifi) that my flight was delayed 10 minutes. It was still 11:00 AM, which was even more worrisome. Then gradually it got later and later until suddenly it wasn't leaving until 4:00 PM, which would mean I would miss my connection in Dulles (AGAIN) by an hour or so. Of course, none of the displays in the airport reflected this change so I walked up to the podium, just as they finally deigned to give us the information. People were upset to say the least. It turns out that many of them had already spent the night in Portland because their flights had been cancelled the previous day. The United agent turned out to be a complete moron, but he seemed to know what he was talking about when he firmly said that there were no seats until Monday morning, and I should be happy to take whatever he gave me. I asked if there were any flights out of Logan, in the hopes of avoiding problems the next day, and after a lot of furrowing of his neanderthal brow and exasperated sighs he managed to find a seat for me the next morning from Logan. Fine. Would they at least pay for a bus to get me there? "Well, the flight isn't cancelled, so no". So I took a taxi to the Portland bus station, then a 2 hour bus ride to Logan. The bus ride on Concord Trailways was actually the best part of my trip all day. The driver was the bus driving equivalent of Norm from "This Old House", and when he wasn't smiling lasciviously and raising his eyebrows at the luggage handlers whenever an attractive woman got on the bus, he was cracking jokes and generally having a good time. You know how sometimes an airline attendant will get on the PA and say something "funny", which usually elicits laughs because many people get nervous on airplanes? The ones that you would normally react to with a groan? The ones that you can tell have been said by that person about five hundred times? Well he wasn't telling any of those. Additionally, there was a big chiller full of free water bottles and snacks that we could grab on the way into the bus. AND there was a movie.

So we arrived at Logan, and just for kicks I went to the United ticket counter. You see, I really did not want to have to find a hotel and pay $200 for a night, and I had the sneaking suspicion that the Portland Maine United agent was, in addition to being a jerk (he shouted down two old ladies who were concerned about missing their connections!), incompetent. This time I got an excellent agent and she got me a seat on a plane leaving in twenty minutes! Would I like it? I could barely thank her enough before rushing off to the plane. Unfortunately, an arm of a tropical storm was sweeping through the airport, and huge amounts of rain and lightning were strafing the runway (Portland, by the way, was sunny and clear). As a result, the flight left around 2 hours late, which really pissed people off... but I was too elated to be getting away from the east coast that night (and not having to stay in a hotel) to care. Chloe very nicely picked be up at 12:30 AM at SFO.