The Trip from **** continued

As I sat in my middle seat, watching other passengers get on the plane, I was relieved that we had made it on time and that I would be in warm weather in three hours.

I settled in and tried to text my mom to tell her we had made it. But my phone wasn’t working. I tried to turn on the TV to decide which movie I wanted to watch… not working. I looked around and saw a passenger with a dog sit down next to Jake. I could hear the dog panting from where I was sitting. Thank goodness that’s his seat mate and not mine.

Eventually the plane pushed back from the gate. The pilot got on the speaker and welcomed us to the United flight, told us how long it would take to get down to Miami and told us to sit back and relax.

20 minutes later, we were still on the runway. What is going on? I should be heading to Florida by now. “Ladies and gentlemen there seems to be an issue with the temperature gage so we have to return to the gate so that a mechanic can look at it. It should take little time to fix and we will be on our way soon.”

60 minutes later… “We’re just finishing up, need to add a little more fuel because of how long we were on the runway. We should be good to go in 10 minutes.”

45 minutes later… “Ladies and gentlemen due to federal regulations we cannot keep you on the plane on the runway for more than two hours. Therefore, we ask that you take all your belongings and exit the plane. We are already searching for a new plane to take you to Miami.”

At this point I’m almost happy to be getting off the plane so that I can grab some dinner and some wine. But I would definitely rather be almost to Florida.

Eventually, we are told we should head to a new gate for boarding at 10. By 10:30 we are still in the terminal waiting. “We just need the catering truck to get here and then we can board,” we’re told. So we wait some more.

Another 20 minutes pass and boarding begins. Again, I settle into my seat, this time with a working phone and TV. “Ladies and gentleman we are going to fly down to Miami with no catering. No drinks or food will be served on this flight. Sorry for the inconvenience.” 

We takeoff about four hours late. We finally arrive in Miami at just past 2am, tired, but ready for a great vacation... with no more mishaps 🤞🏻.