A Change in Plans...

Hello, friends!

Greetings from beautiful Omaha, Nebraska!

Wait a second, I'm not supposed to be in Omaha... I'm supposed to be in College Station! What happened?! Did I miss my flight? Am I no longer working for InterVarsity? Did I get in a fight with the staff and Texas A&M and decide to go home early?

Nope! I just got rained out.

Tropical Storm Imelda wreaked a bunch of havoc on the great state of Texas yesterday. One of the areas hit hardest was Houston, including the airport, where something like 900 flights were cancelled in and out of Houston Hobby.

My original plan was to fly out of Omaha at 11:30, get to Houston by 3, and have enough time to rent a car and make the 2 hour drive to College Station by 6:30 for bible study. Here's what actually happened:

10:45am - get in line to board the plane
11:00am - told that all flights to Houston have been grounded and we'll have an update in an hour
12:00pm - back in line to board the plane
12:15pm - on the plane, with a whole row to myself since it wasn't a full flight
12:30pm - told that the flight had been grounded again and that there would be another update in an hour. We could get off the plane if we wanted so we weren't stuck in our seats but we needed to stay close because once we got the OK to go, we were going to go.
12:50pm - finished the crossword on the in-flight magazine
1:05pm - exit the plane and take a few laps around the airport terminal to stretch my legs
1:15pm - back on the plane
1:45pm - the flight is officially cancelled; exit the plane and get in line to see if I can catch another flight
2:30pm - my 3 options are to either get into Houston Friday @ 10pm (much too late), fly into San Antonio just before Midnight on Thursday night then drive 3 hours to College Station (much too tiring), or cancel the trip and try again next semester.

Thankfully, I was able to cancel my rental car and get a full refund on the flight. The only thing the trip really cost me was one night's stay at the hotel in College Station since it was too late to cancel that reservation without penalty. All said and done, I'll take that.

So, we'll try again next semester. It's certainly not the worst thing that could have happened. After seeing all the rain and flooding that hit Houston, there's a good chance that I would have been stranded at the airport anyway, which would have been a huge bummer. I'll take the time I should have been at College Station and use it instead to play with my kids and pray for the city of Houston.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam