Day One... and Two

So the trip did not get off on the best foot. We were scheduled to take off from Portland at 8:45 am on Friday, stop in Dallas and then Chicago with an hour and a half layovers in each, before flying to Dublin and arriving Saturday morning. Mother Nature and American Airlines had other plans though.

There was serious lightning storms in Texas so all flights in and out of Dallas were delayed. We were assured by American Airlines that this meant that our flight leaving Dallas was delayed too so we would not miss that flight, and all flights out of Chicago were being delayed for those coming from Dallas so we wouold not miss that flight either. All in all the only change would be that we would get into Dublin a half hour late...

Um, yeah. They lied.

Friday August 21st
8:45 am: Scheduled to leave Portland.
10:00 am: Actually leave Portland

3:25 pm: Regularly scheduled departure time from Dallas to Chicago.
3:45 pm: Our flight's actual departure time from Dallas to Chicago.
3:50 pm: We arrive in Dallas. Doh!

4:00 pm: The departure time for the next flight from Dallas to Chicago. Unfortunately it was then cancelled. Doh, again.
4:50 pm: Take off on the next flight from Dallas to Chicago.

7:15 pm: Scheduled departure time for our flight from Dallas to Dublin.
7:20 pm: Our flight from Dallas arrives in Chicago. (Are you starting to see a trend here?)

The next flight from Chicago to Dublin does not take off until 7:15pm the next day so they rerouted us to London and then to Dublin.

9:45 pm: Scheduled departure time from Chicago to London.
12:00 am: Actually take off from Chicago. (The worst part is we were sitting on the plane for the entire 2+ hour delay. That is 2+ hours sitting on a plane before a 7 hour flight.)

Saturday August 22nd
1:25 pm: Scheduled departure time for our flight from London to Dublin.
1:05 pm: We arrive in London.

Now you are probably thinking that we have a chance of making our flight. Well you obviously have not caught on to the theme of this trip.

1:25 pm: Due to technical difficulties with trying to line up the gate with the door, this is the actual time we leave the plane. Yes, we just missed our third plane by 5 minutes or less.

3:50 pm: Scheduled to leave London for Dublin.
5:10 pm: Actually take off from London. (YES. I do not joke. Our plane was delayed.)

6:20 pm: Arrive in Dublin.

It is now 10:20 am in Portland. We have been flying, running through airports, and standing in customer service lines for over 24 hours. We have been awake and in the same clothes for 29 hours. We have been booked on 8 flights, 4 of which were delayed, 1 was cancelled, and 3 we missed.

We are 10 hours late (NOT a half hour) but by God, we are here!