Got to the airport a little earlier than usual; when I check in at the kiosk to print my bag tags, I discovered that my flight was delayed more than an hour and I was going to miss my connection in Atlanta.
So I talked to a ticket counter agent and concluded the best bet was to switch to US Airways. Ugh.
Got switched over, but had 2.25 hours to sit in Columbus.
The positive, is now I was on the CLT to BHM flight with a few co-workers.
The negative, I gave up my first class seats on Delta and these two flights would of made me Platinum. So now I am 42 segments short on making Diamond instead of 40. It already is a gamble on whether or not I will make it or not.
The US Airways flight ended up being delayed about 20-30 minutes. It was gonna be a crapshoot whether I would make my connection now in Charlotte.
Once we FINALLY pushed back, we moved ever so slowly to the end of the runway. I could of walked faster than we were taxiing. I knew something was up. You just don’t taxi that slowly.
Sure enough, we get in position to take off and the captain makes an announcement, “Update from the flight deck, we just got word from headquarters that we are to return to the gate for a dead-heading crew member.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
We get back to the gate within mere moments… open the door… nothing happens. A few minutes pass… “This is the captain speaking… well, we came back for a flight attendant and now she is missing.. can’t find her anywhere.”
Next thing you know, the captain comes racing down the isle to the bathroom. He was in there for like 7 minutes.
They never found the flight attendant we came back for. So we left.
At this point I was curious if the flight attendant ever really existed or if the captain just really needed to poop!?
It’s a really big deal to not only go back to the gate from the runway for a non-mechanical reason, but an even bigger deal to open the door. All sorts of government paperwork has to be re-filed if they re-open the door.
At this point, all my negative feelings about US Air were in full force.
I texted my co-workers in Charlotte letting them know it looked like I was gonna miss the flight to Birmingham.
Took off, fell asleep.
Landed in Charlotte. Texted my co-workers… it looked like the flight to Birmingham had a mechanical delay. So there was still a chance for me to make it.
After I got off the plane, I texted them for an update. They still hadn’t boarded, so I hightailed it to the gate. Took about 10 mins to get there. Got there just as the flight should of departed.
Thank goodness, the flight was delayed another 20 mins or so, therefore I knew my checked luggage was sure to make it. Yah!
Got to Birmingham… headed on our 2+ hour drive.
Someone wasn’t paying attention and missed the exit. But someone else realized it about 11 miles later and got us back on track.
Got into Starkville right at 8pm. Pulled into the hotel just as everyone else was leaving for dinner.
So we followed them downtown, which was an adventure in itself!
Ended up at Mugshots Grille and Bar.
Again, another adventure ensued.
The hostess did not have the ‘most-est’. She was quite possibly the worst hostess any of us had ever encountered. There were numerous confrontations between her and a few of us. A few highlights….
“Can we eat at the bar?”
She looked at us as if we were the first people to ever ask that.
“Um… well, I am not sure.”
“We have 10, but we can split up into small groups”
No response.
She eventually sat us at 2 booths built for 4 each. That wasn’t going to work out so well.
When one of us asked why we couldn’t sit upstairs at one of the many empty tables, she said, “I have a table of 15 ahead of you.”
“But there are like 5 tables of 8 that are empty up there, you don’t need all of them for your party of 15.”
“You can sit here at these 2 booths or you can go back outside.”
That statement led to a chat with the manager and magically we got a table for 10, lots of beers and a couple of excellent servers!
I had the McDonald burger without the BBQ sauce. Very good!
A while later, the useless hostess was seen washing dishes.
Got to the hotel for good around 10:30pm and went right to bed.
Friday – Set Day
Slept awesome! Yesterday was such a long travel day!
Had breakfast with my producer and then finished getting ready for work.
I was excited to get to campus. It was my first time ever here!
For lunch we went to The Little Dooey.
Apparently all the TV crews eat here on Friday’s. There are photos and autographs all over the place. Even banners that we hang in the stadiums are hanging on the walls here.
I don’t really like BBQ, but I tried the brisket. It was ok. I like a place in Memphis better. But the coleslaw was really, really good!
The owner came out to our table to talk to us and give us each a gift to take home to show his appreciation of our visit.
Friday evening, I ate with a few of the guys at the hotel bar. Central time zone crew call is 6am. We don’t get out of work until 6-7pm on Friday night, so that kinda kills any fun time on Friday.
Saturday
15 South Carolina vs Mississippi State
Our catered breakfast was by far one of the worst ever. We sat outside and it was probably about 50 degrees. The eggs…. The eggs were horrifying! Our producer said, “I wish a bird would come along and shit on these eggs so they would taste better.”
Our truck was ridiculously cold, but that is normal. We all just were on edge from the breakfast… Our director decided to crawl up on the switcher and cover the only remaining air vent and cover it.
It’s not an easy feat as you have to have sturdy paper, such as card stock and then several layers of duct tape. And you have to do it without the engineers noticing or they will scold you and rip it down.
No one has it as bad as Chuck, our audio guy though. With every vent everyone else closes, it forces more of the air into the audio booth. He is often times seen with a winter coat and ski mask on! Today he only had a Delta blanket to keep him warm.
I didn’t get to meet “Bully”, but our sideline reporter did. Here are the photos she took.
Here is the “Bully” memorial of previous “Bully’s”
Shots of the crew…
After the game, we headed back to Birmingham. I was so restless in the car. I just have a hard time sitting for so many hours! 6a-7p: ugh!
I took a shower and then headed down for dinner with a few of the guys.
In bed and asleep before 9p.
Sunday – Travel “Home”
Alarm was set for 3:15.
Wide awake at 2:15!
I tossed and turned until 3 and then got up.
Took my time getting ready and then met Chuck at 4a to head to the airport. One of the other guys had given us his car so we didn’t have to take a cab.
TSA at the Birmingham airport is always a nightmare. Today was no different. They took easily 15 minutes tearing thru Chuck’s backpack. It’s always nice to see someone else getting screwed with for once.
He does audio so he carries all sorts of interesting “stuff” with him. Since it’s not something the TSA agents see on a daily basis, they tend to ask a lot of questions to why he (or any A1) is carrying these items/tools.
My theory is, if they are not on the banned list, why does it matter?
Don’t get me started!
Made it to ATL without issue. Actually, I slept so if there was issue, I am not aware.
Stopped at a store to exchange a power supply I had bought last week for my GPS. The chick actually snapped at me because I was not explaining my problem fast enough. Oh… I came close to exploding. I made sure she knew I was upset with her service, but kept my composure.
Boarded my flight to Ft Myers and fell asleep.
As we were passing over Tampa, I woke up and watched out the window until we got to my islands……
We had planned on taking the pups on the boat today, but it was just too windy for people or puppies to be on the water.
Instead, we took them to the doggie park and to Petsmart.
Then dad and I watched NFL the rest of the day.
Not a day on the water… but a nice day all in all.
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