Well, in a continuation of my incredible bad travel luck, they broke my plane. My flight out of Little Rock was delayed because my plane was broken, and the part they brought in didn’t seem to fix it. After an hour delay, they announced it was fixed, changed my connecting flight to a later one, and put me on the plane. The plane that was previously broken. The plane with the non-functioning part. I buckeled myself into my seat and tried to take my mind off of what kind of impromptu fix had turned the non-functioning spare part into a functioning one. It was not an easy preoccupation to banish.
 Apparently the bubble-gum/rubber band/paperclip repair worked, because I did arrive intact, but unfortunately one hour too late to meet a local friend for drinks. One of the consolations of business travel is the ability to see far-away friends and charge your clients for it. But apparently that consolation was to be denied to me.
 So I had to be content with the other little compensations of late-night travel:
They inevitably rent out all the little cheap cars if you arrive late at night. So, hello, Chrysler 300M for me. With an auxilary input for my mp3 player.  Thank you, Alamo Rentals.Â
I also arrived late enough that someone stole my reservation out from under me at the hotel, so, with profuse apologies, I got upgraded to a suite.Â
So I am blogging to you from my comfy clean sheets in the spacious Holiday Inn Express Suite, in brand new Victoria’s Secret jammies (a gift from my mommy for my birthday). Tomorrow I will get up and ease myself into a big, beautiful, brand new silver 300, plug in my Zune, and cruise through the Smoky Mountains in the foggy beauty of a Tennessee autumn.
 The one thing that would make this a perfect landing is if those clean comfy sheets also contained the most beautiful tall bald baby-daddy in the universe.
I miss you, honey.
I can totally smell what you’re smelling. All Holiday Inn’s smell the same.
In a way…I’m jealous. 🙂
I got delayed once because of a mechanical issue. We were sitting and sitting and SITTING, and the pilot kept updating us. “They are trying to get a mechanic out here, we’ll get going as soon as we can.” Of course they never let you off the plane once they get you on … Finally, one of the passengers got up, talked to the stewardess, and then got off. Turned out he was one of the airline’s mechanics! He fixed the plane, and then he got back ON the plane. I felt very secure on that flight. ;=)
I never understand the hotel giving away rooms that are reserved with a credit card. they should just charge you anyway and go on. But noooooooooooooo. Glad it worked out and you weren’t driving around looking for a place to stay.
Sorry we missed each other. Hope the horse pee is good.
Will
I hate when something that was “wrong” with the plane suddenly becomes “right”. We were once stuck on the tarmac when the pilot announced that a mathematical error had been made and that the plane was not properly balanced. It took them three tried.
Needless to say, I was a little tense on that plane (and was totally ready to sacrifice my calculator to the greater good!)