Grand (or LONG) Finale to Vacation

The first part of our return from Seattle went smoothly yesterday. Getting to Dallas went well but the shorter trip to Corpus Christi was finally changed from air travel to a road trip through thunderstorms.

Soon after arrival at DFW Saturday afternoon, clouds began forming. By the time we boarded our flight to Corpus Christi (which was1 1/2 hours later than scheduled), it was raining. We were the 15th plane in line for take-off when all flights were grounded, so we stayed in that queue for almost three hours:

There are federal laws prohibiting passengers from being stuck on planes on the tarmac for three hours or more. Evidently, the airline is fined a large sum of money for each passenger! And so we were taken back to the gate, where we stood in a long, slow line for hours to change our flight reservations.

As we stood there, we learned that all the flights to Corpus Christi were full until Monday morning! The alternative was to book spaces on a later flight to McAllen (in the Rio Grande Valley) and then rent a car there to drive to Corpus Christi.

Instead, Chuck and I, along with a friend from All Saints Episcopal Church (our home parish), decided to rent a car in Dallas and drive home, which is usually a 7-hour trip. Finally, at 9 pm, we drove out of the DFW Airport in the rain, driving south.

The trip took nine hours, with parts of the time seeming interminable with the heavy rainfall and strong winds. The worst part was the driving rain and rapid lightening flashes in the last two hours of the trip. Poor Chuck did most of the driving, though I drove for two hours so he could sleep. So glad he'd had a little rest before the torrential rains of south Texas, where he was even reduced to driving at 30 mph on the freeway.

It was a welcome relief to reach our house in Corpus Christi at 5:40 am this morning. After greeting our barking dogs, we went to bed and slept for about five hours. (No church today.)

The good news for today was that our checked luggage was at the airport when we returned the rental car. 

It is nice to be home.