Travel Troubles
May 11, 2009
Detroit Airport
5:43 PM
It’s been a long day already and I’m not yet in Maine, though I should have landed in Bangor two hours ago. My troubles started a few days ago when the computer wouldn’t let me choose seats. In Memphis the folks at the counter had trouble finding my reservations, and they couldn’t assign seats either. At the Memphis gate they gave me boarding passes for the first two legs of my trip. I assumed that meant I would get my seat assignment in Detroit.
It turns out that Delta/Northwest overbooked the flight. On a small airplane (maybe 50 seats) they overbooked by seven. When I arrived at the gate I ran into my good friend Wendell Calder who was returning with his wife Joan from weekend services in Toledo. I smiled because years ago Wendall found Living Waters Bible Conference, the very place I was scheduled to speak. When he heard about my problem, he went to the gate attendant and offered to let me have his seat so I could make it to the conference tonight. But they couldn’t do that because the woman said they didn’t even have me in their system. Something to do with merger issues between the airlines, I think. She was gracious when I talked to her but could do nothing. So Wendall and Joan boarded the flight, along with my one bag. They did me some phone numbers to call.
It’s a challenging situation because the camp is located 2 1/2 hours east of Bangor and there isn’t a closer airport. Wendell said they’ve been cutting back flights to Bangor. There are now two each day from Detroit–the one I missed and one later tonight that is fully booked.
What to do? I talked with another stranded passenger, talked with the gate attendant, talked to Marlene, and left messages with the folks at Living Waters telling them I wouldn’t make it for my first message tonight. Finally I talked with Roger Black, camp director, who was driving to Bangor to pick me up on the flight I never boarded. He agreed to go ahead and pick up my bag. That done, I called Delta, was switched to Northwest, and found a sympathetic person who booked me on a flight to Portland. That’s two hours further away but it’s the only way to make it to Maine tonight.
Roger called to say he had picked up my bag in Bangor, and Marlene (who is back home in Tupelo) made reservations for a rental car in Portland. I’ll arrive there a few minutes after 11 PM, pick up the rental car, and start driving the 4+ hours to the lodge where I’m staying. Once you get north of Portland, it’s beautiful but sparsely populated. So I’ve made a map in my notebook. Here are the roads I’ll take:
I-295
I-95
Maine 6
Maine 269
US 1
Roger was kind enough to call the folks at the First Settlers Lodge in Weston to ask Judy (she and her husband run the lodge) to leave a note on the door telling me which room is mine. I should arrive around 4 AM. Roger also offered to schedule me to preach later tomorrow morning, but at this point what’s the difference between preaching at 9 AM or 10 AM?
It’s all in a day’s work. Some inconvenience but nothing major. God must be planning something special if the devil is working so hard to keep me from the conference.