Marathon #2 or The Saga of Southwest Airlines Flight 1539

Who knew when Susan and Dean dropped us at the Southwest ticket counter on Sunday evening, that we would spend MORE time sitting in the Portland airport waiting to go home than we had spent out on the race course earlier that day?

Marathon #2 would begin at approximately 5:15 pm. We decided to check our bags so we didn't have to lug them through the airport (hey, we were really tired) and were pleasantly informed by the Southwest ticket agent that our 6:25 departing flight had been delayed an hour. Ugh.

Okay, no problem. Grab a beer and a snack in the airport bar, relax for a bit - no sweat. We caught up on some phone calls as we sipped our chilled Mirror Ponds and regaled our friends and families with tales from the marathon. After a couple of pints and a snack, it was time to head for the security line. We made it through at about 6:45 - perfect we thought for our 7:25 departure.

But it wasn't to be. Upon clearing Security, we check the departure boards. Flight 1539, departing out of Gate C15 now read departing at 8:05. Ugh again.

We sat down at a table to chat, rather than walking all the way to the gate, and put in a phone call to Susan. At this rate, she'd be back in Seattle before we even left Portland. And as I was talking to her on the cell phone, things got that much worse.

Jason checked the board again, and all of a sudden it seemed it went from 8:05 to a 10:15 departure. Ugh ugh ugh. Three and a half more hours sitting in the airport. When all we wanted to do was to take a hot bath and go to bed. We went down to the Gate to see if there were any other flights out. There was one Horizon flight leaving in 35 minutes - we could go check that one.

We boogied as fast as we could boogie at that point from Gate C15 to Gate A3 (oy!) to find that the flight was TOTALLY full, with a waiting list, and they wouldn't sell standby tickets anyway. Phooey. Our evening was destined to be spent waiting.

We hunkered down and did the best we could to get comfortable and get a little rest. I think I even snuck in a 45 minute nap - though it was hard to tell if I was really sleeping since I could still hear the kids screaming at the play area 50 feet away.

By the time it was all said and done, we didn't board an aircraft until 10:55 pm PST. We took off at 11:10 pm and landed in Boise (with the time change) at 1:10 am. As it turns out, the plane we were supposed to fly was delayed on take-off out of Las Vegas. When it landed in Reno, it had mechanical trouble - which they attempted to fix, but failed. Then it was a matter of waiting for a plane that was terminating in Reno that they could then send on to Boise. Those flights terminating didn't land until 8:30, then they had to be unloaded, cleaned and reloaded with the folks coming to Portland. And then the plane had to be turned again to head out to Boise.

I do feel bad for the flight crew. By the time they landed in Boise, they'd had a 12 hour day, and they were supposed to be back in the airport at 6:45am. Yuck. But I felt bad for us too - we were sore, still, and really, really tired. We got our bags and went home to our doggies. Luckily, Alana (the best housesitter in the world!) agreed to go back and hang with the pooches for a couple of hours in the evening upon hearing of our delay, so they weren't in their crates for too long.

By the time we said our hellos to the dogs and grabbed a quick soak in the tub (a definite necessity), lights out was 2:30 am. It was a very long day indeed.