Day 9 Lincoln to Aplington

Woke just before the alarm after another restless night. I was used to the noisy air con and the humidity was only 56%? I think I was concerned about the tight Chicago connection. After breakfast with help from the guy on reception, I printed off my boarding passes and finished packing. I was sitting outside in the sun when the taxi arrived. Quick trip to the airport and that’s when it all fell apart.

It is lucky that I like to be early, because there was a major issue with my flight being delayed to Chicago. The people at the United desk tried every possibility in case I didn’t make the connection. Basically it meant as long as the plane arrived in Lincoln on time and that I ran as fast as I could in Chicago,  I would be able to make the connection. Because if I missed the connection all other flights out of Chicago were full and I would need to stay overnight somewhere.

I downed some Panadol to combat the tension headache and went upstairs to get a cup of tea. Yes they had tea, so I had two cups. I went up to security. Just as it was my turn the scanner dropped out and they had to reboot it. Then I got pinged for a body check- of course. I sat down to wait for the flight, only to get yet another text from United to say the flight was delayed even more, to the extent that the connecting flight was leaving 20 minutes before I landed. Michael Bolt would have problems running that fast. Many people who had connecting flights were in a similar situation.

So back to the United desk to my new friend Patty, who eventually worked magic on her computer and re- routed me via Denver to Cedar Rapids, with guaranteed seats, just arriving later than the original time. The “bag lady” had to come up to take a new tag for my bag. Fingers crossed it arrives with me.By the looks of it, there were several grumpy people waiting for the flight to Chicago, which was delayed even more for the third time. Consolation was that United provide a free tea/ coffee machine in the gate area. 

My new flight is due to fly out at exactly the same time as the Chicago flight- from the same gate? Could be interesting?

Eventually the Chicago plane arrived and they had a very fast change over and as soon as it left, our plane came and we boarded 20 minutes late, but it didn’t matter because I was about to lose an hour and sit for two hours at the Denver airport. Got a salad for lunch- most salads in Australia contain more than lettuce, two slices of frozen cucumber and two cherry tomatoes. But I was able to get a hot tea from Starbucks. We boarded on time and then became number 15 in the line of planes with another 7 behind us, so a delay in take-off. Big storms in some states had caused a bit of airport chaos. While I had a window seat, the conditions were not perfect for photography- hazy and cloud cover.

However it was fascinating to see the variation of conditions on the ground- from dry to large green circles when irrigated. Iowa was green as far as you could see. We landed at Cedar Rapids slightly late. The airport had changed so much since my last visit. When I went down stairs to get my bag there were Brenda and her sister Carla. Grabbed my bag and Carla took a photo of us as we were about to get in the car.

The drive back was along Highway 380, which was mostly in very good condition and a relatively easy run. Brenda stopped at a McDonalds for me – French fries and a shake for them. The sunset was absolutely amazing.

Soon after the sun set the clouds began to gather and we could see lightning in the distance. Carla was uncomfortable about the lightning. She had been caught in the tornado in 2008. We dropped her off in Parkesburg which had been annihilated by the tornado half the town was brand new. You could see the path of the tornado by the variations in tree size.

We drove on to Aplington and after unpacking just sat and relaxed while watching the highlights of the Iowa State Fair on tv. The temperature had dropped but it was still humid. Gordon was already asleep. He wakes up at 4:30 for work. Bed for me at about 10:30- a long day at airports and on planes.