Long Road Home leads to a Long Post

I knew that this trip was going far too well. I was supposed to fly out of Baltimore (BWI) this morning at 6:45. The friends I was staying with went to the Western Ball last night and didn't get back until fairly late. With my flight leaving so early, my friend offered to let me drive her car to the airport. The plan was I would park in the day parking, lock the keys in the car, and then she could come pick up the car later in the day with her second set of keys. I woke up before 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time.

The drive was great and I was a bit nostalgic driving past the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the National Mall in the quiet of early morning, where hours before I had been a part of history. I couldn't believe that I had been a part of something so special. I arrived at BWI at around 5:30 AM so I had over an hour to check-in and get through security. I decided that the fair thing to do would be to leave some money in the car to pay for the parking and the gas that I had used. I tour off a blank portion of my printed itinerary and wrote a quick note of thanks and attached a twenty and the parking stub to the note. Then I hid the keys, locked the doors, and got out of the car. As soon as I stepped out, I went to reach for my wallet and to my horror it was not in my back pocket. Frantically, I searched my bag praying that my wallet had somehow found its way into it...but I knew that I had locked my wallet with my identification in the car.

There was an emergency call box nearby so I ran over to it and pushed the police button. (side note- I know this wasn't technically an emergency but one of the services listed on the box was locked keys so I figured it was appropriate!) A guy comes on and I tell him that I locked my keys in my car...which was true. I mean, I did lock the keys in the car but he didn't need to know that it was on purpose. The operator tells me that I need to call information not the emergency line. There was a button that I hadn't noticed before for information so I pushed that button and the new operator told me that he was going to have to contact the police. 10 minutes passed and I was starting to get real worried about missing my flight so I called information again to check to see if they had called the police or if I needed to push the other button again. They said the police should be by shortly.

The policeman showed up and it was kind of awkward explaining what all had happened and how the car wasn't mine but I needed to open it, but not to get the keys, just a wallet, which conveniently could not be seen by flashing a light in the window. I don't know if it was the desperation in my voice, the fear in my eyes, my youthful innocence, the fact that I pointed out the note and my torn itinerary, or that I could correctly identify the owner of the car, but the cop believed the story! Whoo hoo!

The cop called the locksmith and wished me well. It took another 10 minutes for the locksmith to arrive and about 5 minutes to open the door. With the car alarm blaring, I hurry and found the keys and turned off the alarm and the search was on. I could not find my wallet in any of the normal spaces it could have fallen into. At one point the thought crossed my mind that maybe it was in my bag and that was a horrific thought. I checked my bag again and nothing. Finally, I found the leather, bain of my existence, source of all my frustration wedged in the area between the drivers seat and the door. How it got there, no one knows for sure. Some say it was luck, others that I am cursed, but I am pretty sure it would be impossible to get it there again.

With my wallet and bag in tote, I hurried and re-locked the car with the keys inside (which was somewhat humorous to me in one of those so frustrated you laugh-type emotions) and I ran to catch the shuttle to the terminal. I had to go down one floor to catch the bus so I leaped down the flight of stairs, burst out the door, only to see the bus driving away. I think it was at this point I realized that one this was not my day, two BWI hates me, and three this was an awful ending to a great trip. the next shuttle came an eternity of six minutes later. I arrived in the terminal at 6:30...my flight was supposed to be leaving at 6:45. BOOOOOO!

I went up to the counter and said that I might have missed my flight, perhaps an understatement or naive hope but the lady smashed any wistful wishes and said, "Yep, you missed your flight." She was one of those great compassionate, helpful, concerned customer service reps...yeah right! After she dashed my hopes she said there was no open flights out of BWI. I asked if she could check and she gave me one of those you-want-me-to-do-what looks and I gave her the yes-I-want-you-to-and-I-want-a-smile-on-your-face-while-looking looks. We compromised and she looked up some flights and I gave up on the smile on her face. She found a flight out of Dulles (I was at BWI remember) for 5:00 pm (it was 6:30 AM) for the low-cost of $900 and some change. Whoa, that's more than twice what I paid for my entire round-trip! Not really an attractive alternative. I asked if I could fly stand-by she said no. I asked if I could be credited the cost for the remainder of my flights and she said that even though I was flying on her airline, my ticket was held by the airline that I flew in on, so no she could not give me a credit. To top it all off, she said, "There are other customers in line and I need to help them. You are going to have to think about what you want to do." I looked confused so she simplified, "You need to think about whether or not you want to take the 5:00 Dulles ticket and then get back to me."

I left and called home. That always seems to be the best solution to any problem I find myself in. My dad started looking up flights and I got in the line at the airline that supposedly held my ticket. My Dad found one flight for around $500 that left from BWI at 12:00 pm so that was better than the previous offer but still more than I had paid for my entire round trip previously. I got to the front of the line and this time, the customer service was much better. The guy treated me kindly and got me on standby all the way to Salt Lake for the whopping cost of $0, null, nada, zip. I made the flight from BWI to Charlotte but they were unable to get me on the earlier flight to Phoenix. So right now I am waiting in Charlotte for 2 and 1/2 hours, hoping I can get onto the next flight to Phoenix because I already have confirmed tickets from Phoenix to SLC. Here's to hoping I get home today!

(Sorry this post was so long to any and all of the readers of this blog!) -Cody