The story of how I got to Dallas yesterday.
I was booked on Northwest Airlines to fly from RDU to Dallas-Love Field through Memphis. Unfortunately, the plane hadmechanical difficulties and didn’t arrive in Raleigh until 30 minutes past the departure time. We boarded and the gate attendant told me not to worry–that I would have plenty of time to make my connection.
In Memphis we pulled up to a part of the terminal where there were no jetbridges. No problem, since we were in a small plane. I’ve unloaded on the tarmac in small planes before. For 10 minutes we just sat there while I watched the watch on the arm of the lady next to me. 2:05… my connecting flight’s departure was 2:15. The flight attendant got on the PA and announced that we had actually landed at the wrong airport. I think everyone believed it for just a moment.. it was Northwest after all. “Just kidding!” he said. Not funny. We were waiting on the ground crew to arrive.
I called Dad to see if my connection was delayed. I had seen on the news that morning that it was snowing in Memphis, so I hoped that many flights were delayed. Nope. On time. Finally, they let us off the plane, onto the tarmac.
I grabbed my bags and ran to the terminal, up the stairs, around the corner to find a gate agent waiting. “Dallas Love Field,” I sputtered breathlessly.
“Gate C9.”
“Am I going to make it?”
“Maybe.”
I started running. I hit the moving walkway only to be foiled by a dad teaching his toddler to walk. Not the place, buddy. I saw others from my flight running past me on the non-moving walkway. Ugh. I came out of the A terminal where I saw a bank of LCD screens. My flight was still on time. I ran. Finally, there was one last bridge to cross to get to terminal C. As I ran, I looked out the windows. I saw planes lined up. C13. C12. C11. C10. C9. There is was. There was my plane.
I stopped. The door was closed. I was pretty sure government regulations prevent anyone from boarding after the door closed. I started running again anyway. I ran into the waiting area at gate C9. It was empty except for two Northwest gate attendants.
“Can I help you?”
I couldn’t talk; I was breathing too hard.
“I’m… supposed…. to be on that…. plane.”
It was over. She could get me to DFW at 11:00 pm. I told her either airport was fine. In that case she could get me to Love Field at 9:30. Sure.
“Maybe I can get you on an American flight that gets in at 6:30.”
“Great.”
She called and got me a ticket. Then she gave me a lunch voucher for my troubles. “For a minute there we thought you were going to make it.” At least they were thinking of me. I started for gate C12 to get my new boarding pass from American Airlines.
I was the fifth person in line when someone came over and said, “Five more minutes then we’re closing up.”
“Great,” I thought. “I’ll have to come back later to check in.” Miraculously, no one in front of me had any time-consuming business, so I made it to the counter. They seemed to know who I was before I explained the whole story.
“Do you just want to get on this plane?”
I looked to see the gate door open. She handed me a boarding pass.
“I won’t get to use my lunch voucher.” Yep. When offered to the chance to get to Dallas quickly, I worried about losing free food.
“You can use it in Dallas.” I immediately boarded the plane, and got to Dallas earlier than originally planned (albeit the wrong airport).
Oh yeah, that’s his famous guitar with the hole in it. Asleep at the Wheel came out alone at first and played about 6 tunes. They were basically a honky tonk band with a clarinet and trumpet (think Dixieland). The two fiddle players were amazing (one was 14!) and several of them sang vocals. They played several standards (“Don’t Fence Me In,” yeah, Cole Porter, and a beautiful version of “What a Wonderful World”). They’re a great group and I recommend downloading some of their tunes on iTunes.
