EPIC Travel Fail

Sunday morning, Early Sunday morning I headed to SLO airport for a leisurely stroll across the continent and into Central America. Nothing big. Here was the Plan: 6:40-7:30 SLO to LAX. 9-1 LAX to Miami. 3-4 Miami to Guatemala. Perfect. Except for the fog ... in SLO. 2 hour delay getting into LAX means I landed 1 hour after my connecting flight to Miami left. No big deal. Oh, the next flight out gets me to Miami 4 hours after my connecting flight from Miami lands in Guatemala. How about a different airline, perhaps something through Texas to shorten the length. Oh, nothing.

So this is me, haning out in the Starbucks at LAX by our gate waiting for our flight to Miami, right after I saw Jim Belushi. This is the beginning stages of haggard and a long long night. I'm now scheduled to get into Miami at 8pm, and I'm not going to make it to Guatemala tonight. So, making the best with what I have I call up Marriott, ask for the closest Marriott to the Miami International Airport (.5 miles away ... nice) and book a room. Should be at the hotel maybe 9pm local time.

Now remember I had a 2 hour delay at SLO, so now I'm on the plane to Miami (a 4 hour flight in and of itself) and we sit on the tarmac for oh, a hour and a half while they replace a light in the cockpit. So now I have a 4 hour flight to Miami and I get into the airport closer to say ... 10. Then the airline "lost" my co-workers luggage, only it wasn't lost it was sent ahead to Guatemala. Something we discovered after waiting forever, pleading to the turnstyle gods to produce her bag from behind the magic door and then waiting for 30 minutes in the luggage SOL department.

Coming onto 11:30, ok, Luggage in Guatemala, but we have a hotel a half mile away. Only after 5 phone calls 2 missed shuttles, one shuttle that had to turn around and a taxi cab later we blow by the Marriott on the outskirts of Miami Airport (the one .5 miles away) and drive 25 minutes into Miami Beach. Definitley a nice hotel, but at this point I'm looking for the back of my eyeballs. I get to bed around 2am, wake up at 4 in a dizzing panic thinking the clock is wrong and it's actually 8am and we're about to miss our ride to the airport, crack my toe on a chair ill place pushed at the desk, finally figure out that it actually IS 4am, dark outside and I head back to bed.

I'm supposed to be training a new group of agents Monday morning and instead I find myself being whirrled back to Miami airport and instead of a traffic jam we make it there in 1/2 the time, breeze through security and sitting at the gate 2 hours before my plane boards.

This is me now haggard in my hotel in Guatemala, half a day behind on everything.