Travel Hiccups

I know a lot of people complain about the headache that is air travel, but to be honest, I rarely have issues. And I fly a lot. And in strange, foreign countries, on odd airlines. 

I choose to fly nearly exclusively on Delta or SkyTeam.  They've proven to me over the past few years that they rarely have, incidents, and when they do, they fix them. Also, the benefits of status aren't too shabby. 

I should have known getting back to Belgium wouldn't go smoothly. The exit hadn't flowed since the start. I was supposed to fly out over a week ago, but unexpectedly stayed an extra week to finish up on my condo purchase, puppy sit and deal with some health issues.

Is there anything cuter in life than a puppy belly?!

I finally boarded a plane yesterday heading to Atlanta scheduled to head on to Amsterdam and finally Brussels. The first flight was smooth. It was the ATL-->AMS that went wrong.  

I boarded around 7:30pm, got ready to sleep, started reading a magazine and soon fell asleep. As I fell asleep, I knew we hadn't taken off but didn't worry. They always board super early for international flights.  After what felt like a decent nap, I noticed we were still on the ground. Apparently, there was a mechanical issue, so I went back to sleep. Then I heard them announce that people could deplane if they'd like. I ignored it and slept more. Once I woke up, nearly fully rested, I noticed we were still on the ground. It was 1:30am.  

At 2am, they cancelled my flight and deplaned all of us.

2am check in to the hotel.  Feeling a little ripe. 

The next steps went fairly smoothly. As we walked back into the terminal, our boarding passes were scanned and each person was given a ticket with a hotel voucher. You could wait and rebook, but I figured calling would be faster. 

I headed to my assigned airport hotel (thanks Marriott for the great bed!) and called Delta in route. I got rebooked on a flight the next afternoon (technically later that afternoon) from Atlanta - - >New York - - >Brussels. 

But I did get to run into one of my coworkers unexpected in the airport. I look great, sans makeup and plus glasses. 

Check-in was super speedy.  I slept as late as I could and headed back to the airport. Now I'm delayed again due to bad thunderstorms in Atlanta. 

Atlanta closed down for thunderstorms. 

“​Will I ever get home?! ”

I'm Alive!

What a crazy, crazy month. I completely got lost in work, travel and adulting.  I have been meaning to post, but life got in the way. 

Here are the travels of the past six weeks:

• Delta and KLM: BRU-->AMS-->SFO (May 5th)--all went easy, peasy
• United: SFO-->SNA (Orange County) (May 9th) -- smooth
• Driving: Whole state of California (May 15-May 22) -- loved my rental Dodge Charger!
• Delta: SMF-->LAX-->AUS (May 23rd) -- super early, but good
• Delta: AUS-->ATL-->GSO (Greensboro) (May 25th) --sad to leave Austin
• Driving: Winston-Salem, NC-->Blacksburg, VA (May 29th) -- sick and slept the whole way
• Driving: Blacksburg, VA-->Ashburn, VA (June 2nd) -- caught up on phone calls
• Driving: Ashburn, VA-->Philly, PA (June 4th) -- listened to great tunes (mainly country)
• Driving: Philly, PA-->Blacksburg, VA (June 5th) -- terrible thunderstorms caused delays
• Driving: Blacksburg, VA-->Ashburn, VA (June 8th) -- caught up on work phone calls
• Driving: Ashburn, VA-->Blacksburg (June 9th) -- finally done driving!
• Set to fly back to Belgium on June 13th --so ready to get home

Had a great month working on my tan. 

I started in Santa Rosa and then flew down to Orange County for meetings and a work photo shoot. By May 15, I started driving the state of California. Each day,  I was working about 15 hours a day with approximately 6-7 hours of driving. Stops included San Diego, Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, Lake Tahoe, Folsom, Santa Rosa (again) and Sacramento.

By Sac, I was exhausted... and sick. The worst. I already had a flight to stop through Austin for two days to see my best friend from grad school.  We had an amazing time catching up and I was so excited to meet her adorable boys. Luckily, they put up with my weak voice and annoying cough.

Onto Winston-Salem for US nationals. By that Sunday, I crashed and wound up in urgent care getting antibiotics, steroids and prescription cough syrup. They all were godsends and I started to bounce back fairly quickly.

While I had meds, I still didn't get to slow down much until today. Over the past 1.5 week, I drove to DC, Philly, back to Blacksburg, back to DC and back to Blacksburg again. But the DC trips were thrilling because I bought a condo! I feel like a super adult. 

My new condo... That I never plan to live in.

Now I am puppy sitting. Not just puppy sitting, but also dog, horse, cat and chicken sitting. I get on a plane Monday....I'm ready.

My favorite kind of office mate.

“I’m ready to sleep in my own bed... ”