I don't know what caused our homeward flight to be delayed five hours. It certainly wasn't the weather, which could hardly have been better for March in New Hampshire. The Southwest Airlines agent said the delay was due to maintenance, but I suspect that any "maintenance" that so disrupts the flight schedule is more along the lines of "repair."
Whatever the cause, at about 2 p.m. we discovered that our 5:30 flight had been rescheduled for 10:30, with the estimated time of arrival in Orlando moved from a very reasonable 8:45 to a very unreasonable 1:45 a.m. Unreasonable, that is, if your ride home from the airport has to get up early to go to work. We looked into alternate flights, but none was direct, and their arrival times into Orlando weren't all that much better. We chose to stay in a situation where if the flight were cancelled the onus was on Southwest to make other arrangements. Porter reserved a rental car instead (there are return places for both Hertz and Avis near our home, which makes this a convenient option), and we settled down to enjoy a little more time with the grandkids.
Not all that much time, as it turned out, because in order to fit our new departure into the Daleys' busy schedule, we had to leave home sooner than strictly necessary. There was a bit of a question just who would drive us there, as Jon had been called out on an ambulance run, but he made it back just in time. The rest of the family stayed home, so there would be plenty of room in the car on the way home for a large load of pellets for the woodstove, but Heather insisted that Jeremiah come, even though he had to be awakened from his nap. I'm sure it was a good decision to let him say goodbye to us at the airport, because at barely two I'm sure he was shocked enough this morning to find us gone.
At the Manchester airport, our flight was famous. They kept one restaurant open well past the normal closing time, so we were able to eat a late dinner while passing the long hours of waiting. The food wasn't great but it was more than we had expected, and we were grateful. Pretty much, if we saw anyone there who wasn't an employee, he was on our flight. Thus after dinner we were able to settle ourselves some way away from the gate (but within eyeshot), and know that we would not be left behind. In fact, the Southwest agent came to us (and the others scattered around) to deliver our two $100 vouchers "for the inconvenience." True, it was inconvenient, but for two adults with no travel deadline it could not be called onerous. (I did keep imagining what it would have been like if we had been travelling with three children under four, as Janet and I had done in the summer.) We settled into a set of comfortable seats with charging stations for two phone and two computers. We were warm and safe; we knew our plane was now in the air and on its way to Manchester; we had work to do and books to read, in peace and relative quiet. Some people might pay a lot for that privilege....
We took off just before 10 o'clock, and all went smoothly with the flight, our subsequent retrieval of luggage, the rental car, and the ride home (none of which should ever be taken for granted). It's times like this when I'm reminded that one of the blessings that came from Porter's years on the road for IBM was a great familiarity with the whole car rental procedure. Even so, this one took some getting used to: it had no keys. Well, it did, but we didn't find them until later, tucked away in a compartment. The only instructions were "depress the brake and press the start button." Figuring out how to turn off the radio was also a trick. Eventually he knew enough about the car to drive it home, but our first computer was less complicated.
We arrived home somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 a.m. Everything was fine except for the clocks, which all insisted it was an hour earlier.
Today Porter is digging his way through Central Florida's surest sign of spring: mountains of fallen leaves, and the trees still shedding. When he is no longer in danger of falling off the screened enclosure into the pool (best-case falling scenario), I will venture out again to replenish the neglected larder.
Our feelings for Southwest Airlines were not of the rosiest when we learned of the long flight delay, but I was impressed by their efforts to make it up to us: not only did the vouchers sweeten the situation, but the cheerful good humor of all the staff was contagious. It's still my favorite airline.
