I didn’t sleep much better this morning. I had gotten in the habit of getting up around 6:00 am while at the Jamboree, which meant I woke up on my own at 5:00 am, local time. By 6:00, I had given up trying to get back to sleep and just got up and started moving.
The hotel shuttle took me back to George Bush International, which was a good 25 minute drive. I checked my bag in (they fortunately did not charge me the bag check fee a second time) and headed into the main terminal.
IAH is huge. I mean, really, really big. It has 5 terminals, with 61 restaurants of various sizes and descriptions, 83 retail stores, and 9 Starbucks. There’s even a Marriott between terminals A and B. Part of this makes sense to me. I mean, it is convenient to pick up a few items while you’re travelling, and a good hot meal while you’re waiting is always welcome. Most of it does not, however. There’s an entire mall inside there, and a giant mall at that. Yet you have to be a ticketed passenger who has gone through a security checkpoint to get at all of it. Craziness.
The ticketing agent I had spoken with the night before told me that there was a chance I could get on an earlier flight, so I went to the gate where the first flight would be leaving from. The agent there told me that it would be impossible to fly out early because I had already checked my bag and I had to be on the same flight as it was.
Well that made life simpler; all I had to do then was wait. And wait. I got some lunch. I ate dinner. Then I finally got on my plane and flew home.
When I arrived, my bag never came through on the carrousel. It was locked up in a storage area because it had flown to Portland on the first flight of the day instead.
Figures.
Anyway, it’s great to be home! Brian’s flight was delayed again, and he arrived a couple of hours after me. He spent the night in Atlanta, but he is also home safe now.
All is well.
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