Well, after that first adventure flying, do you think I was eager to do it again a week later? Nope, me either. This flight to Charlotte was earlier than the flight to Indianapolis. It was scheduled for 6:35AM, which means I was supposed to be at the airport at 5:30, I had to leave home at 4:45, I had to get up at 4:00AM. Me?? Get up at 4:00AM?? Kerry maybe...but ME????? Actually, it was easier than I expected it to be, lol.

Amazingly enough, our flight took off on time! Everything went well at the warehouse, counting the coils to make sure our records matched what the warehouse said was there, and was actually there. I got back to the airport in Charlotte in PLENTY of time to make my flight. In fact, I was so early, my flight wasn't even listed on the departure board yet. I didn't even know what terminal to go to. So, I wandered up and down the closest one, and by the time I returned to the departure board, my flight was listed. Lo and behold, my flight was scheduled to leave from a gate in the terminal I was at. Since I still had at least an hour to kill, I walked to a bookstore, bought a magazine and read through that. I returned to the gate and made myself comfortable.

As I sat there, I noticed the gate next to ours also had a flight coming to Chicago, leaving 30 minutes earlier. To back things up a bit, earlier in the day, I was talking to my boss on the phone and he told me my flight would probably be delayed coming home due to fog and a low ceiling. As I sat there at my gate, I began to wonder just how delayed this flight might be. The gate attendant came on the speaker to announce that the 3:33 flight leaving from the gate next to us, was not going to start boarding until 3:30, and that once boarded, the plane was going to pull back from the gate and the plane would be parked for an hour due to delays in Chicago. At that time, she had no idea how long the 4:00 flight (mine) would be delayed, but if any of us wanted to get on the earlier flight, there was still room. I figured with the delays, I might as well take a chance and hope to get home quicker.

I got re-booked onto the earlier flight, with a seat assignment of 20A. Then I went back to the bookstore and bought a book to read during our hour delay on the plane. Turns out, when we started boarding that row 20 was the next to the last row. When I got to the back of the plane, the flight attendant back there, suggested I wait to see what might be available closer to the front, since the flight was not full. There were also two other people standing back there waiting for better seats. Once everyone was boarded, she walked towards the front, then motioned us forward, and I ended up in row 5 (second row back after first class) in an aisle seat. Can't get much better than that! The doors were closed, we backed away from the gate, we parked, and I started reading to pass the time. It was a romance novel, three stories in one book, all having to do with NASCAR, one of my favorite things, lol. I finished the first story only minutes before we were able to start taxiing out.

After we took off, I reclined my seat back and snoozed almost the whole trip home. If my original flight had been on time, I was supposed to land at 5:30PM. After switching to the earlier flight, plus the hour delay, I ended up landing about 6:20PM. As I walked towards baggage to take the stairs down to the parking level, I was curious about how delayed my original flight was. Turns out it was 30 minutes out, so I did better by booking the earlier flight, despite the hour wait on the plane. Again, a long day, up at 4AM home at 7:10PM.

I hope my flight to Hawaii in January doesn't have any delays, lol.