Trip from hell

yesterday I traveled from SFO to portland, ME in a record 16 hours travel time. My first flight on United to Dulles was delayed without explanation, as was my second connecting flight. Shortly after cramming myself into the tiny seats on the United Express plane, I noticed that it was hot. Really, Really hot. To allay our concerns, the pilot got on the PA system and told us that yes, he knew that it was hot, but he knew exactly what the problem was; the auxiliary power unit was dead, which powers the AC as well as the starter for the turbines. This, he added, was what all that extra machinery was that they were attaching to the engines -- they were starting them with external starters. After some very worried looks between the passengers we took off, and a short while later were on approach to portland, ME. Surprisingly, just as we were ten feet off the ground the pilot aborted the landing, hit the power hard and shot back up into the air. Again, no explanation as usual, and we slowly banked into a turn and landed on a completely different landing strip. It was now 12:45 AM, and I was glad to finally be in Maine and more importantly on solid ground. This relief soon turned into fear again as I watched the taxi driver swerve to avoid traffic cones on the turnpike, and just generally sway all over the road. Thankfully it was a divided highway because he spent a good 30% of his time not in a lane. He seemed to have a preference for the middle of the road, but wasn't averse to the occasional swerve onto the shoulder as he hunched forward to read a sign. More amusingly still, there was no AC and his windows didn't work, so he had to open his door and get halfway out of the to pay at the toll booths. The swerving and driving in the center of the road took a more serious turn after we left the divided highway and got onto two way country roads. By now it was almost 2 AM, so I was too tired to be scared of dying. Happily, after getting my key from security I got into bed at 2:30 and was awoken three hours later by one of my suitemates slamming the door as he went outside to smoke. The suite has a door, and he has a door, and he went out around 5 times, which equals a whole lot of slammin', and almost no sleepin'. I am a wreck today.