Well the day had finally arrived! We were all packed and ready to go when Mother Nature and her Global Warming butt wanted to put a kink in millions of people's lives and give us a beautiful snow storm. I could hardly be mad because I love the snow a lot and I just think it is the most beautiful thing this world can produce through weather. I just wished it would had hit a couple of days earlier or after we were already in the air. When we laid down to go to bed at 10:30 on Thursday night it had already started to snow at my parents house. Knowing this I set my alarm for 5:00am so I could get up and watch the news to get updated on the weather. When 5am came I went into the living room where my dad was already awake and had the news on. I looked out the back kitchen window to see a TON of snow! "Ugghhhhhhhhh!" Went through my mind, I thought "how the heck are we supposed to drive in this?!" All the while the news was in the background repeatedly saying "If you do not have to leave your house dont!" "The roads are in bad conditions and there have been 46 accidents since 12 midnight last night." My dad being a work Natzi will be at work rain or shine, hell or high water and through sleet and snow. There was no doubt in my mind, I knew he was going to work. So he got ready, we said our "See ya later" instead of "Goodbye" and he left. (Back Story on the "see ya later": When Jess got drafted and it came time for him to leave I told him not to say "Goodbye" to me, say "See ya later" because that gave me hope we would see each other again. Not that him or I were going to fall off the face of the Earth, just because we were young and hadnt been together long enough to know we would for sure see each other again after being apart for 4 months. Since then I wont tell anyone "Goodbye" its too emotional for me and I get too attached to people to say that to them. I know Im weird but I just cant help it.) I then got out my computer and checked our flight status. We were still departing on time (so it said) so that meant that I needed to get myself ready and get us on the road. Around 6:00 I went outside to actually check out the car and turn it on, as I made my way back into the garage I was hopping through the snow. (You should just know this is about to get ugly) I wear my Uggs religiously and that is what I had on, if you have ever seen any Ugg boots you would know that the bottom of them is clean smooth. They have a foam type bottom that only make marks in dirt or sand. As I hopped my last hop from the snow into my parents garage when my foot hit the concrete I started to slide. (Kind of like when Marve on Home Alone did when McCauley Culkin set out that slimy stuff down in there basement or wherever it was.) I started to slide and all my weight went backwards and then I went into the air! When I finally made it to the ground I landed on my left hip side and I slide under my sisters truck that was in the garage. Thank goodness I grabbed onto her tailgate because I think I would have slid all the way under there if not! Ofcourse I screamed but noone heard me and its a good thing I didnt hit my head and get knocked out because noone would have rescued me and I would have froze to death on top of us missing our flight! When I woke Jess up that morning I told him what happened and of course he laughed! He said "Your officially a Todd today!" I said "How or Why is that?" He replied with "Because you fell pretty hard today!" I thought to myself "Well if falling hard makes me a Todd then I must have been a Todd since I was born!, Ive been falling like that for years!"
After he got ready and we got all of our stuff together I woke my mom up to let her know we were leaving. I told my sister "See ya later" and we headed out. This was about 6:30, It normally only takes 45 minutes to get to the airport but I knew with how much snow was on the ground we werent getting there in that quick of time. Jess drove and we ended up making it there in an hour and a half. He drove between 25-35 mph so we only slid a total of 3 times! Lucky us! The roads werent that bad it was just the non experienced Texans that were the problem. Luckily for us our vacation in Crested Butte gave us some practice. When we got to the airport and got to the ticket counter the guy asked us where we were going followed with "Do yall have to go today?" That was my first clue that the day was going to be a long one! I replied with "Yes, we really have somewhere to be and If its possible we will wait all day to get on a flight out." He said "Alrighty then, I just wanted to make sure before I sent you through and checked your bags that you were prepared for delays." He checked our luggage and gave us our boarding passes and said "Good Luck!" Once we got through security and to our gate we were greeted by this outside the window.
Uhhh yeah my optimism went out that very window! I knew then the snow storm that had taken over the Big D had taken over our flight out of there! We were going to be there for a while. We then decided that if our flight did get cancelled we would just stay over night and take the first flight out in the morning. Since the Super Bowl had also taken over Dallas, finding a cheap hotel was out of the question. Our original flight time was 9:25 and since we had gotten there at 8 we had some time to kill. We didnt want to just grab a quick Mcdonalds breakfast when we knew there was a possibility we could be there all day long so we waited it out. Around 9:15 they came on the speaker and said they would be making an announcement at 9:30 regarding whether we were leaving or not. Well 9:30 came and went and then came 10 then 10:30. I happened to look up at the monitor and it said that Flight 8 to El Paso on to Phoenix had been cancelled! No update! No call! No nothing! I just happened to see it on the screen! Then more people saw it and more and so on. I then started to see a line form at the ticket counter for our gate. I told Jess to grab our computer bags and get in line while I called Southwest on the phone. I figured one way or the other I could get ahold of someone that could get us on another flight. I ended up getting someone on the phone way faster than we did in line. I asked him what was going on and he said "Well all flights going out before noon are cancelled." "I can put you on another flight but it might end up getting cancelled too, its just whether or not they can get in the air today." I said ok fine and he changed our flight to the 2:50 one. We had to stay in line to figure out our luggage situation and get new boarding tickets so that took another hour. By the time we got all that taken care of it was 11:30 and we were starving. I never understood why airports had bars but yesterday I was thankful for the one in Dallas Love Airport! We ate at Chili's and I had a bloody mary and Jess had a beer. It killed some time since we knew we werent leaving until almost 3.
Yes, total domination on my part! I was stressed so dont judge, lol. After we left the Chili's Bar (classy I know) we went to the magazine shop to stock up and then proceeded to our new gate. I took a nap for about 15 minutes because I was just exhausted. (No I didnt pass out from my 1 bloody mary!) When I woke up I had the marks from my sweater on my face. (Even classier I know) Jess then offered to get us more drinks so he went and got me another bloody mary and him another beer. He said when he got back that they were running out of beer in the airport. There were tons of people there from delayed or cancelled flights and everyone was pretty much drinking from boredom so It didnt seem shocking that they were running out. I felt like I was in college all over again, midday drinking for no reason. 2:35 rolled around and that was our boarding time yet noone was moving. Another delay! I then prepared myself to really spend the night there. I knew we might not get out if it took any longer, the weather wasnt getting better and the temperature was not getting any warmer. So we sat there for about another hour. Then a plane started to pull into our gate. People roared and clapped it felt like we were in a movie! I had never experienced something like that. Pure joy and happiness over a plane pulling into a gate! We finally took off around 4 something. From there we went on to Tulsa to let off and on some passengers. That took a little longer than expected but then we were finally on our way to PHOENIX! YAY, YAY, YAY! The flight was full and long but I couldnt even complain because atleast we were on our way. We landed in Phoenix at 8 there time and 9 yalls time. We took a cab to Goodyear from Phoenix which is about 25 minutes and we went straight to the field to get our rental car. By the time we got to the hotel, checked in and got all our luggage off it was about 9:30. We were starving so we hit up the nearest place to eat which was Subway. We didnt care what we ate we just wanted to eat and then go to sleep. We were absolutely exhausted! We had a very eventful day and it is definitely one that is going in our book of travel stories. Sorry for the over excessive post, there was just so much that went on I had to let you all in on it. I hope yall are all enjoying the snow even though it makes getting around and doing things much harder. We miss yall and love yall very much!
Love,
E
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