It was a whirlwind 2 days in Houston. I flew out of Columbus on the 4th of July. The flight was through Chicago for the best chance of making it to Houston on standby. Flying out of Columbus was a breeze. I have come to appreciate the Columbus airport. It is clean, easy to maneuver, and you can get something to eat without breaking the bank. Stepping off the plan in Chicago I immediately felt the craziness that was to come. My flight was scheduled out in about 45 minutes but as I watched my United App, the number of seats went down and the number of passengers on standby went up. Not surprisingly I did not make it out on that flight, or the next one that was an hour later. That left one more flight out at 7:30 pm. At this point I had to make some choices. I talked to the United Agent at the gate. He looked things over and said there wasn't much chance I would make the next flight. I think I was #15 on the standby list with about 10 seats. He suggested I fly to Dallas and get out of Dallas to Houston first thing in the morning as he said it did not look good for getting out of Chicago in the morning either.
I walked around a bit thinking and praying about what to do. I stopped and asked at the information booth about flying back to Columbus that evening. This lady suggested I fly to San Antonio and rent a car and make the 2 hour drive to Houston so, arrive at 10:30pm, try to rent a car, and drive in the dark from one big city to another in an area I don't know....ahhh no thank you...not an option. At this point I called Gary and he suggested I see about buying the ticket. I did... $509...also not an option. When I went up to see about buying a ticket this third lady I talked to was pretty much like, "what were you thinking trying to get to Houston" She shared she didn't think anyone should try standby unless there were a good 20 seats open. I was reminded that life sometimes involves taking chances.
Pretty much all the flights, Dallas, Denver (another place to fly into and spend the night), Columbus, and of course the last one to Houston were right about 7:30. The whole time I was talking to God and was at peace with whatever would happen. I would be disappointed if I didn't make it but knew it was God's plan. It was strange because I had pretty much made up my mind that it made sense to just go back to Columbus when all of the sudden I was energized and the thought in my head was I had made it this far and I wasn't giving up, even if I had to sleep in the airport, even if I ended up flying back to Columbus the next day. I called Gary, put some relaxing music on my kindle, opened up my kindle book, and settled in for the wait. About 45 minutes before boarding time I went to the gate and started the wait. Right before boarding time they started calling people up for standby. I believe 5 seats were taken and then they kept calling names and no one stepped forward. Finally they called my name. I was almost in tears I was so happy. I texted Colleen right away and let her know I was on my way. And so at about 10:40 pm I arrived at the George Bush International Airport and there stood my sweet Colleen. I felt bad since she had flown in at 7 and had to wait for me but she was a good sport about it. By the time we got back to her neck of the woods, we were hungry but everything was closed so we went back to her apartment, made oatmeal, and called it a day.
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| Flight Attendants |
Watching Colleen pin on Hannah's wings was a special moment!
I still can't believe these two young ladies are flight attendants.
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| "Pining Hannah is her cousin Flight Attendant Colleen Korte based out of Houston" |
I am grateful that I got to spend an extra night with Colleen.
We decided to go to the Woodlands Mall and have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then walked down along the Woodlands Waterway. It was a fun way to spend the evening. As it turned out Columbus natives, 21 Pilots were playing a concert at the amphitheater and you could hear the music in the park. We had fun watching all the people and listening to the warm up band but by the time it was time for 21 Pilots we were hot and in need of hydration and so had to leave. I believe it was still about 90 degrees at 8 pm.
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| I decided we needed a selfie while we sat and chatted |
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| Boaters enjoying the concert |
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| Along the Waterway...getting ready to head back. |
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| Woodlands Amphitheater |
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| Sunset on the Waterway |
The first night while I was sleeping I felt this tapping on my back. I opened my eyes to see Rafiki, Colleen's cat looking at me like "hey, wake up, let's play!"
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| Rafiki |
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