Spending all day at SLC International

As you many of you already know, I like to travel. I enjoy the rush of packing up and going someplace new. I like watching people at the airport. I love the feeling as the jets kick in and the plane is pushed into the wide open sky. In general, I just enjoy everything about travel. Today was a day that made me wonder why…

I arrived at the Salt Lake City International Airport around 8:30am and soon learned my flight was delayed 30 minutes. I was fine with that; it would give me more time to get through security, grab something to eat, and maybe surf the internet before the flight. When I got to security I was pleasantly surprised to see that there wasn’t even a line. It was looking like it was going to be a good travel day… boy was I wrong.

After waiting the extra 30 minutes for the delay we boarded the plane and got settled in for a direct flight to Dallas. We sat on the runway for about 30 minutes and then they announced that we were being delay for another 3 hours! The reason? Strong winds in Dallas. They took us back to the terminal and we all got off the plane. Within an hour, they had cancelled the flight completely. So, now there were 60 people all trying to get to Dallas (or other places) all at the same time and only two more flight scheduled for that day.

Long story short, after being on standby for two more flights and not getting one either, I finally got a spot on the red-eye flight to Atlanta with connection to Dallas. It left SLC at 12:50am. I couldn’t stand being in the airport any more that day (9 hours and counting), so I called a friend and you went out for dinner and I was back in time to catch the night flight.

The red-eye flight to Atlanta was only three hours, but I slept through the whole thing. I was on the last row by the window, so I was literally the last passenger to get off the plane. I had just enough time to catch my connecting flight to Dallas. I arrived at 8:53am in Dallas and my presentation started at 11:00am in Denton. I ended up taking a taxi to Denton (35 minutes) and arrived right when the presentation before me was starting. I changed in the bathroom and listened to the end of the presentation and then I presented. It went very well (maybe better than if I had had a full night’s sleep) and everyone was glad I had made it. I still love to travel and see new places. I still enjoy people watching and that feeling when the jet FINALLY leaves the ground… and yet I think I like it most of all when everything runs smoothly and you can just sit back and enjoy the ride. :)