And oh what a voyage it was.

 

Clearly, I was not able to fly home Monday evening as was scheduled. MSY was closed due to Gustav blowing ashore.

 

To top that, I had lost my credit card over the course of the weekend: it'd flipped out of my wallet when pulling a keycard, and I never saw it again. Fortunately, no one used it, so my credit standing is okay.

I had that sitting over my head all weekend, though: I couldn't give them a place to send the new credit card Monday because Monday was a holiday, and I couldn't give them a location for Tuesday because I didn't know where I'd be Tuesday.

 

 

At least that was, until the Sheraton Premier comped BrickFair a room for Tuesday night, and Todd Webb allowed me to stay in it. This was great, except that I didn't find this out until Sunday, which meant that the credit card company couldn't forward me a card until Wednesday.

 

And another little technicality: I was running out of clean clothing.

 

Fortunately, I was able to make some purchases with my bank card. Even got to buy a couple of Christmas gifts.

 

 

Tuesday saw me successfully executing, sort of, my changed itinerary: instead of the flight home Monday, I would stop by the post office and mail back the MOCs that were sent to Maryland (except CF's because I was overloaded with boxes already) before proceeding to Dulles.

Future coordinators: Not counting Bunda's cash (because I didn't ever see the envelope), I collected about $85 in cash. The shipping bill was $180, at about $14 per MOC. Display was well worth the extra footing on my end.

 

After arriving at Dulles, giving my sob story as why I couldn't eCheck in like everyone else, finally finding the manned United counter behind the main ticketing, and getting my bag checked, and getting through to the terminal, I finally got to eat breakfast: a Gordon Biersch mushroom & swiss burger. (The Lemon Wave from Maui Wowi was much better.) However, I did get there 4 hours before my flight was to depart, so I had ample time to walk about the concourses. Even found out two important points.

• Delta informed me that MSY was scheduled to reopen the next day, Wednesday, September 3.
• Northwest told me that their first flight to Monroe Wednesday morning was going to cost me about $600 including taxes and checked baggage fees.

Why is Northwest important? See, my girlfriend had been riding out Gustav with her parents, in West Monroe. We had moved my car to my brother's place in Baton Rouge on Wednesday night before leaving for BrickFair in the first place, and Baton Rouge had taken a worse blow from the storm: I certainly wasn't going to be able to fly into Baton Rouge.

 

In fact, the best United to could do for me was to get me to Memphis, TN: a 6 hour drive from Monroe, LA.

 

By the time I boarded the plane to O'Hare, Amanda had called me back, stating that the price from Memphis to Jackson, MS, was equally prohibitive, and that she and her mother were already en route to pick me up.

 

After the plane leaving O'Hare had to return to the gate to pick up 3 passengers who were on the plane bound for Dayton instead of Memphis, we were an hour and a half late. But it didn't matter: I was getting to see Amanda, and nothing could have killed my good mood.

 

At 12:03 AM, Wednesday, the plane landed, and at 12:11 AM, Wednesday, I got to hug Amanda for the first time in almost a week. What's more, at 12:25 AM, the hug continued. It would have been okay were it not for the unplanned delays.

Next time, she's definitely coming with me, so that there's no worry of "when am I going to see you again?" ruining an otherwise wonderful buzz from the weekend.

 

Even if the reunion was tailor-made for a movie.

 

 

 

-KIE

 

P.S. I know this entry is after 12 AM Central. I'm still posting another one tomorrow.