Yesterday morning Skip and I got up bright and early (4:30am) at our airport hotel in Buffalo so we could catch a flight down to Brownsville TX. As one can't fly directly to south Texas, we had two scheduled stops at Chicago/O'Hare (ORD) and George Bush International in Houston (IAH). Our United flight to Chicago was like clockwork and, as the flight attendant commented, we enjoyed a 'textbook landing'. We had over 3 hours as a stopover 'til our connection to IAH and easily found the appropriate gate.
At boarding time, we were informed that there would be a delay because the two front tires of the aircraft were being changed. Once that was done, we got all boarded only to be told that there was a problem fueling the plane and there would be a further delay. We were told to deplane. People (like us) who had connecting flights were told to go down to the customer service area to see about getting on another flight to IAH or our final destination. There we were told to go back to our gate and await further instructions. Back at the gate we were told that the customer service people shouldn't have sent us back but they helped us anyway. It was only 2pm by this point and we had 'til 9pm to get make the last flight to Brownsville and were told to wait and see if another plane could be found to take us to IAH. Alternately, the guy at the gate found us flights on American Airlines that would take us to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and then on to Brownsville (BRO) at 10:30pm.
We decided not to wait to see if a plane could be found with United and made our way to American Airlines to get our tickets. Once there, 2 terminals away on foot,. we were informed that United didn't properly cancel our flights and AA couldn't ticket us until they did. So back we walked (with our carry ons and personal bags) to United and got released from our reservations and the information was sent American Airlines. Back we walked to AA again where the very helpful agent got our tickets and boarding passes organized. My iPhone reported that we had walked over 8,000 steps so far that day.
We then made our way to the AA gate to await boarding and our new flight to DFW. From there on, everything went like clockwork. Then our only concern was being able to pick up the rental car in Brownsville as our flight was scheduled to arrive at 12:09am and the rental place was scheduled to close at midnight. I called the rental place and was told to call Expedia (with whom we had booked the flight/hotel/car package) who would then call the car rental in Brownsville and let them know we were going to be late and to wait for us to arrive so we could get our car. There are only 2 gates at the Brownsville airport so they would be well aware of the arrival of our flight from DFW.
The Health app on my iPhone:
So in spite of spending a lot of time sitting on our butts waiting, we did get a lot of steps in walking back and forth to customer service desks and gates.
You may be wondering about our checked luggage? Fortuitously, it had travelled from BUF to ORD on an earlier flight than we were on and it made its way to Brownsville by 5:25pm. (Travel tip - download the airline's app on your device so you can track your luggage, get flight updates, etc.). So through all of this, we at least knew our luggage would be waiting for us in BRO when we got there 6 hours later. In fact, somehow they knew we were coming in on AA and the United folks had put it at the AA luggage pick up.
The car rental pickup went smoothly. The only annoying thing was that Skip wasn't allowed to be the 2nd driver because he had a different surname than I do - even though we reside at the same address. I will be sending Dollar Rentals a scathing letter to inform them that this is the 21st Century and people do not necessarily change their surnames upon marriage. But I digress.
Those who know me well know that I totally rely on GPS navigation so I had packed my device at the top of my suitcase so it would be easily accessible. With our luggage stowed and GPS installed we made our way to South Padre Island in the blackness of night - 1pm by this point. We might have encountered a half a dozen cars along the 30km route. We were checked in and ready for bed by 2pm. Taking account that we had turned our watches back another hour when we crossed into Central time, we had been up, in motion, on the road, waiting for flights, or in the air for 23 hours. I believe it doesn't take that long to fly to Australia.
It is sunny and 28C today.
We have one more day to recover and then we'll be going on a birding trip up the valley to Estero Llano Grande State Park with
our birding friends.
