Maybe I should just avoid air travel for, say, the rest of my life. First off the trip was great. I will post about it later. But first let me tell you about my life with American Airlines. I left Thursday morning. I packed two bags, well one was just my golf clubs and had my sister drop me off at the airport. I was there in plenty of time, almost two hours before my flight. I had breakfast and waited to board the plane. I was flying to Dallas and there I would meet some of the other people going on the trip including my buddy Bell. I had a ninety minute layover so I went to Fridays and had a drink. A few minutes later the guys also showed up at Fridays. We got a snack and had a few cocktails and then boarded our flight to Charlotte.
No problems in the air and the flight landed on time. We went down to collect our bags and guess what? Yep, my golf clubs did not show up. The bag with my clothes was there, but no golf clubs. Everyone else’s bags were there. I went to the lost luggage happy room and filed a claim. They said that the next flight was supposed to land in a few hours and my clubs should be on it. However, since we were spending the night at the house of one of the guys who planned the trip, he lives in Charlotte, they would not deliver my clubs to his house after 11 PM. Some rule they have. The nice lady told me she would have them delivered to Pinehurst first thing in the morning. OK…
We got up in the morning and during the two hour trip from Charlotte to Pinehurst. I called the airport to see if they had sent my bag along and I was told that they hadn’t found them yet. Great. I was really getting mad and a little worried as there is no way they could replace my set. I have been tweaking them for about 5 years and have them pretty much the way I like them. Luckily, I called later and they had found them and they were en route. My clubs would arrive later that day.
OK…the rest of my time in Pinehurst was fantastic. Now for the trip home. We were a little rushed on Sunday as the last flight we could catch home was at 7:10 PM from Charlotte. We had a two hour drive so we planned on leaving Pinehurst at 4:00 PM. We made good time and got to the airport right on schedule…not that that was necessary as our flight was delayed by over an hour due to bad weather in Dallas. I was scheduled to get home around 11:00 PM West Coast time. Instead the delay out of Charlotte put me in Dallas at 11:00 and, after sitting on the tarmac for 30 minutes, I had to run to catch my connecting flight. I had ten minutes from the time I got off the plan to get on the next plane, three terminals away. Not to mention that the flight was very rough. The weather in Dallas was very bad and we were bouncing around very badly. The flight to San Francisco also started out very rough, but eventually calmed down. I landed in SF at around 1:30 AM and proceeded to the baggage claim. Wouldn’t you know that when they had ninety minutes to transfer my luggage, they lost it, but give them only ten minutes and of course it was there. My sister picked me up and took me home. I was home by 2:30 AM (really 5:30 AM my time) and finally went to bed around 3:30 AM. Of course I was up at 7:00 AM so I am a bit tired today.
I loved the weekend and had a great time, but I am not going to be too eager to fly for a while. Pictures to follow from the trip.
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