Getting The Kid Back To School

With all the weather on Friday night/Saturday getting the kid back to U Florida from Michigan was quite a challenge. 

The original plan was DTW-ATL-GNV leaving at an ungodly early 4:45 am from DTW, so needing to be at the airport ugly early.

Fun was driving to the airport in the snow.

Snow that not a plow had touched at all.  In fact while, driving I saw all of one plow on the entire route.

The roads leading to the highway were absolutely snow covered.

The highways themselves had no lane markings visible under the snow.

Thankfully the snow was not slippery icy stuff but more of a packing-snow type, so while slow going, it was reasonably safe going.

Oakland County seems to be busy spending money on DEI rather than basic competencies like snow removal.

DEI and other progressive gee-gaws are luxury spending that, while a waste of money, should only even be considered after you have your core competencies down pat. Sadly they're sexier to Democrats than things like safe and clean roads.

Get to the airport at 2:00 am, the flight was soon announced as cancelled due to the mess in Atlanta.  Weather will do that.

Got her rescheduled to Jacksonville (would have to have had her Uber all the way to Gainesville but it was something) and got her through security at 6am for an 8 am departure.  Should be good as a direct flight bypassing Atlanta, right?

Wrong.

That flight was then cancelled due to lack of crew availability due to the weather messing up the system.

Then, I got her rescheduled back onto a later DTW-ATL-GNV flight at 10 am, which then was pushed back to 11 am and then was announced for boarding which was a good sign.

The flight boarded. But there was then a 1 hour delay sitting at the gate due to Atlanta being stacked for receiving aircraft.

They then got clearance to go, and they were off without incident around 1pm and landed in Atlanta. The ATL-GNV flight, then got rescheduled quite a few times but they got clearance to go around 6pm and she finally got back to Gainesville.

Upon landing, the pilot wished them all a happy semester and “Go Gators!” which was a very nice touch.  She met friends on te plane as it was mainly students heading back and shared an Uber getting to the dorm.

Through all the delays and weather trouble, the Delta  customer service reps were super helpful in rescheduling her flights and working to get her there.  

Thanks to Delta, the flight crews, and all the customer service representatives for all their hard work yesterday under some very trying circumstances.

Having around 2 hours of sleep and hanging around the airport for hours trying to get her home did not make me a happy camper.  But she got there safely and that's what matters.   We could not get here there earlier to beat the weather as the dorms weren't open for students to return until Saturday, which is stupid. 

But she's now safe and sound in happy warm Florida.  I'm done shoveling out from the latest snowfall and back at work.