Remember yesterday’s story about the difficulties of flying?  And about how planes are too full?  Now I have proof!

Let me back up a bit.  Today’s trip back home started smoothly enough.  No traffic on the short ride back to the airport.  But once I arrived at Boston’s Logan International Airport, things began to unravel.

Let’s start with the security lines that stretched-out as long as a football field.  Don’t you hate that?  But I wasn’t in a hurry, and the check-in and security process took less than an hour.

That’s when the real fun began.  Our plane was overbooked.  Way overbooked.  How and why does that happen?

Good news for me–or so I thought.

I volunteered to fly on a later flight in return for a $400 travel voucher.  The delay would only be an hour, and I would arrive back in Tampa at the same time as I would have anyway.

Fabulous!  Sign-me-up!

The pleasant and dutiful Delta service rep at the gate assured me I would not be boarding.  As I watched my zone pass by me as they boarded, the now stressed-out agent called me up to the ticket desk and awkwardly informed me that I would be taking this flight after all.

No worries!  I had just learned that my beloved Wisconsin Badgers had beaten-up on the Purdue Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Indiana.  That alone was enough to make just about anything roll right off my back!

So she kindly hurried me to the front of the line, where I donned my mask and boarded without incident.

As the plane filled and the flight attendants prepared for takeoff, One of the attendants up in first class made her way toward the back of the plane–and stopped at my seat.  “Would you still like to volunteer to take another flight?”  She asked a bit hesitantly.  I nodded and immediately followed her up and off the plane.

You should have seen the look on a number of the passenger’s faces as I whisked-by them wearing my mask.  Had I been caught stowing away?  Was it a medical emergency?  I’ll never tell!

As I left the plane, I was almost run over by several late arriving passengers, two which just missed the flight.  The workers behind the ticket counter worked overtime as the attempted to re-assign everyone and get out of the way for the next flight’s arrival.

It was a bit of a mess…

I’m writing this on my newly scheduled flight to Atlanta.  Soon I’ll press “PUBLISH” the magic internet will do it’s thing.  And barring any more unforeseen delays–like missing my flight to Tampa as I race through,as a Bostonian would say, the “crazy large” airport in Atlanta to catch my connecting flight–I should make it home in time to watch Saturday Night Live spoof the Vice Presidential debate.

Whew!  All in a day’s travel.

Feel good and keep smiling!  Pat