Long Ride Home

It seemed like a simple enough idea. Instead of driving the rental car home, catch a flight. Instead of catching a flight from Tucson to OKC with a 3-hour layover somewhere, just drive the two hours to Phoenix and catch a direct flight. Save an hour. Right?

Apparently not.

I drove the two hours to Phoenix. Grabbed some lunch. Topped off my gas. Turned in my rental car. Caught the shuttle to the terminal. Checked my bag. Got processed through airport security. And sat down to relax for another hour and a half until boarding. All was well.

For about four minutes.

Then the text-message arrived. From Southwest. "Flight delayed". For how long you say? And hour? Two maybe? Nope. Try three. At first. A second text was received another hour later tacking another hour onto the delay. This meant a two-in-the-morning arrival into OKC. There went that hour saved.

The wait was excruciating. I checked into a number of alternative flights, but none were viable. All I could do was sit there with all those angry people.

When I finally arrived in OKC, yet another component of my plan unraveled. To save money on parking, I hadn't driven and left my car at the airport as usual. I was dropped off. The plan was to catch an airport shuttle home. Only trouble was that those stop running around midnight.

Fortunately, a friend was awake and able to give me a lift home. Obviously I owe him. But my three-in-the-morning arrival home was both comforting (to be home) and terrifying (knowing I had to be at work in a few hours). Probably a little more terrifying considering the journey in full.

When I got into the office this morning, it had already been a very long day. After a full day of work, catching up on two weeks of emails, I'm going to need this weekend to recharge from a much longer than expected return. If you consider that from the time I left Tucson, until the time I got home, approximately 13 hours had passed. And then further consider that it's an approximately sixteen hour drive from Tucson to OKC. Even though I flew home at hundreds of miles per hour, I feel as though I drove home, non-stop, and unrested.