I may go wrong and lose my way

Until this trip I'd never been further west then the Black Hills of South Dakota. Realization that I haven't really done much traveling in my life was one of the reasons I decided to go to FanimeCon in San Jose. I figured I should. So Thursday morning I packed my bag and waited for Ms. Echo to pick me up and take me to the airport. "I sure hope the weather doesn't screw up my flight," I told her.

I checked my bag and got my boarding pass issued with no problems. I was processed through security with no problems. I get to my gate and there's a problem. My flight now boarded some 25 gates from where I was. No problem, I had time to walk to the gate. Problem, it was past boarding time and there was no plane at the new gate. Finally a plane arrives, people disembark. We weren't gonna make it out on the scheduled time. We finally board and leave the gate around noon. Then the storm hits. I spend the next 5 hours belted into a window seat in a plane sitting on the runway. FIVE FREAKING HOURS. I got a good nap in.

After 5 hours the flight crew is in overtime. So we head back to the gate. We get a new flight crew. We are told we can get off the plane if we want to, but we won't get our luggage back. So, I stay on the plane. We finally take off in the storm. 3 and a half hours later we land in Orange County. There is no ticketing agent at the gate, and I've missed my connecting flight by 5 hours. I go to the gate where I was suppose to make my connecting flight. There's a ticket agent taking tickets for a puddle jumper. When he finishes I explain to him what happened. He tells me to get on the puddle jumper because it's headed to San Jose. I get on the plane, my luggage doesn't make the flight.

I get to San Jose and find the Baggage Claim desk and fill out the paper work to have my bag found and sent to the hotel. I have to call Gavv and Dani to figure out which hotel I'm staying at. I'm a bit scattered at this point. But I thought my ordeal was almost over. All I had to do now was catch a shuttle to the hotel.

I wait for an hour for a shuttle. It never shows up. So I call the hotel. They tell me they don't have a shuttle from the airport. I'd have to take a cab. So one cab ride and $20 later I'm there. Gavv is in the lobby with Andrew. I talk with them for a few minutes and then go and check into my room. Getting my key to the room had been the quickest and least painful of anything I'd done all day.

It was 10pm, Pacific Time Zone. I was hungry and tired and without my luggage. But I had a place to sleep. And I was at FanimeCon 2007 in San Jose.

And that was just getting there.