Part 5 - The Return Home

my return home from my vacation went well, but wasn't perfect. my step dad and i drove to portland on friday night since he had a flight to catch at 6am and my flight was scheduled to leave a 1pm. we stayed at the embassy suites hotel at the airport and i must say that was the best room i've ever stayed in for the price. that is saying something because i've been in several nice hotels in my life. the room wasn't fancy in an upscale sense, but it had all the upscale amenities. we had a living room, bedroom, kitchen sink, fridge, microwave, high speed internet on the tv, and a full complimentary breakfast. all for $124. the only complaint i have is the bed was a bit firmer than i like.

friday night i anticipated a possible cancellation of my flight since my flight plan was to fly from portland to houston to dallas. when i woke up saturday morning i checked my flight status via my cell phone and sure enough my flight was canceled. not because of current weather condition, but because there was no one at the houston airport. did this worry me? no. i've been flying alone or with my younger brother since i was 15 years old and i have a good concept of how the industry works. i'm not saying i know the ins and outs, but i'm not ignorant to the system.

i proceed to go check out of the hotel at 8:30. for i new if i could get to the airport early enough i might score a connecting flight through another city or on another carrier for free. when i was checking out i told the gentleman at the desk about my flight since he asked where i was going. he was very nice and told me to call if i couldn't get a flight out today and he would give me a room at the distress rate of $40-$60. he said even though the hotel was filling up fast he would make sure there was a room available for me. after the delightful service i was provided i headed to the airport.

i arrived at the airport at 9am. i walked to the continental airlines check-in counter to find that i was the only one in line. evidently they only had two flights going out that day. one was boarding at 9am and the other was mine which was canceled. when i got up to the counter i told the lady that i wanted to see if i could get another flight home to dallas. she told me that they didn't have anymore flights that day, but she would call american airlines and check on there direct flight to dfw that was scheduled to take off at 12:20. showing up to the airport early paid off. they had a seat for me. not only did i score a flight home, but a direct flight home. this meant i would be arriving at dfw at 6pm instead of 9:30pm. i called my friend brad to let him know that he could pick me up much earlier than 10pm.

i flew on a good ol' mc douglas super 80

after passing the time for 2 1/2 hours in the airport i finally boarded the plane. over all it was a good flight. i was disappointed that i didn't get served lunch, but i know the airline is trying to save money. i just figured that since continental served me breakfast on my flight to portland that american would also be serving more than pretzels on the flight home.

we experienced a bit of turbulence a couple of times, but the landing was amazing. i only felt the first wheel touch the ground. even the head sturdiest was impressed, and announced her joy of the intercom. that's saying something seeing how she flies a lot more than most people.