Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Kyler and his family met me in Iowa City and we were off to Chicago. While the forecast looked grim, the roads and weather were perfect. When we got to the airport we checked in right away. About an hour later we said good-bye to Kyler’s parents and went through security. Kyler and I then decided to find where our flight would leave. We sat there for awhile to watch another flight take off. Then we decided to explore the area. After seeing terminal 1 concourses B and C we went back to sit down. We saw Joel, who flew in from Omaha, and talked to him for awhile. As the time got closer for us to board, I began to get a little nervous since I had never flown before, but overall was pretty put together. In fact, Joel was impressed by how calm I was since I had never flown before and was about ready to step onto an 8 hour flight over the ocean. At about two minutes to boarding, I took my Dramamine and started chewing a piece of gum. A few seconds later, we were informed that our flight was delayed a half an hour. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 6:04 pm but it kept getting delayed over and over again. Apparently something was wrong with a light on the wing of the plane. United Airlines tried to borrow a part from American Airlines but that part was not compatible. At 9:50 pm, the airline decided to give us $10 food vouchers since we were supposed to have dinner on the plane. Almost all the food vendors were closed, so options were very limited. I had already eaten dinner at 7:30 because I was starving. But I got a muffin and a bottle of Sprite to take on the plane. However, at about 11:00 pm we were notified that the flight had been canceled. We would need to fly on the next day’s flight. We had to go to customer service to change our tickets and get vouchers for food and a hotel room. We stayed at the Wyndham O’Hare Hotel in Chicago. Joel, Kyler, and I each got our own rooms. We were not allowed to retrieve our checked luggage which was kind of frustrating because I only had the clothes I was wearing.