The Luggage Ordeal

Sometimes when you go somewhere the travel gods look down on you and say "Today is going to be your lucky day." January 15 was not that day for me.  I left my home at around 4:45 am. The plan was to drive to Twin Falls, fly to Salt Lake, leave Salt Lake at 9:55 am and get to Philadelphia around 6:00 pm. Here's what really happened:  Did you know that if you get to the airport with less than 30 min until your plane leaves you cannot check bags? Yup, it's true. I didn't think it would be a big deal to be super early at the Twin Falls airport. How long could it take to check in 15 people for a flight? Well I was wrong. I got to the air port 25 min before it left and that's when I learned about this supposed FAA rule. So I had to just take what I could carry and my parents mailed me my biggest bag. So I get on the plane, upset because I'm leaving home after a wonderful month at home, because I don't know when I will see my family again, and now because I had to leave most of my stuff behind. I get to Salt Lake and have 2 hours to wait for the plane to leave. We board on time and we are waiting to leave when the pilot says the bathrooms are broken; both of them. Apparently, a plane can't fly more than 3 hours with two broken bathrooms.  I am learning all kinds of dumb things on this trip! So the pilot says they are working on it and hopefully we should still be able to take off on time.  After a few more min of sitting there our friend the pilot says "well it's take off time and we are not leaving.  We'll keep you posted." A few more minutes pass and he says we should all get off the plane because it's going to take about an hour to fix. Great. So we get off. After an hour they say "well, it's not done yet and we don't know when it will be.  We'll keep you posted." So no one here really knows how long this is going to take.  So I wait, and wait, and wait. Finally after 3 hours of waiting and talking things over with my mom, we decide that even if we left right then (which we are clearly not doing) I'm not going to get to my apartment till 10:00 pm. That is too late for me I think. So I switched my flight to Sunday and stayed in Salt Lake Saturday night with my aunt and uncle which turned out to be a lot of fun! The flight on Sunday was fine, left on time, no broken bathrooms or anything else dumb.  Now I'm back in Philadelphia, but still luggage-less. Since Monday was a holiday, my mom had to pay a ridiculous amount of money for my package to be delivered on Monday.  I go to the office of the apartment building to pick it up and it's not there! Maybe I'm a little early.  So I wait a while and go back just before it closes, still not there. I call my mom, explain the situation and tell her she better get her money back. Hopefully it comes on Tuesday. I check again on Tuesday, not here. My mom called the post office and they said that they tried to deliver it but there was no one in the office to take it so it's at the post office. I can either go get it or wait for it to be delivered on Wednesday. I don't get out of class till 5 on Wednesday so if I wait I won't be able to get it till Thursday so I had better go get it.  I get in my car to drive down the street to the post office and my car wont start. Perfect. The battery is dead from sitting in the cold without being driven for a  month and that is a drama all in itself. The post office isn't very far so I decide to walk, wondering the entire way how I'm going to drag my bag back to my apartment through the puddles, snow and mud. I get to the post office, hand the man the ticket to pick it up and he says "You're at the wrong post office." Of course I am. So now I have no car, and my luggage is at a post office that is not in walking distance. Now it seems the only option is to have it delivered on Wednesday and I can pick it up on Thursday.  As a last resort my mom called the post office and talked to the nicest man! He said he was the one who tired to deliver it and would run it over right then. Thank goodness for nice people. He turned a quickly developing nightmare into a not-so-bad night. He brought it to my apartment and even carried it up for me. So now I am back at school, have all of my stuff, and I guess that makes me ready to go!