Delayed: My weekend in San Antonio, TX

So if I had to use one word to describe my weekend in San Antonio it would be "delay."

Friday it was raining and heavy winds here in the Northeast which caused massive havoc in my travels. Friday afternoon while I was at work I recieved a call from the airline saying my flight from Newark, NJ to San Antonio would be delayed and that they would hold tickets for me to fly through Houston to SA. Since I had my laptop at work and found a wireless signal I checked to see if my flight out of Albany was delayed also. Apparently the information on the website was wrong because when I got there the 1PM flight to Newark was just boarding and my orginal flight was delayed. Luckily I was able to get a seat on the 1PM flight that left at the time of my original flight. Coming into Newark was probably one of the roughest landing I have been on ever because of the wind blowing so hard. Anyway all the flights were delayed going out of Newark believe me I waited in line at the customer service desk and checked. Since they were holding tickets in case I needed them on a different flight so I was glad to have options avalible but opted for the direct flight since they were SUPPOSED to leave around the same time. Originally the direct flight was to leave around 9:40 but a plane apparently came in and designated for the flight earlier. About 8:30 they announced the plane was on the runway and they were going to unload, get us on the plane and get in the air with a short turnaround. Well after we got on the flight and they had gone through the inflight procedure (which I don't think anyone really pays attention to) the capain came over the loud speaker and said that there was a minor issue with the plane and they would be back in 5 five minutes to tell us when they would be ready to leave. Well we sat at the gate, in the plane for 90 minutes while they worked on the aux. power supply (which they ended up bypassing). They gave us headphones and played crappy sitcoms which really didn't help pass the time. Once we were airborn it was a grueling 4hr flight we finally arrived in San Antonio about 2 am. I finally got to my hotel and checked in around 2:30 and in bed just before 3.

I got about 3 hrs of sleep because we were going to the service project at 7 so I had to get up and shower then grab my power breakfast of a waffle and blueberry muffins which I finished enroute to the service project. The service project was a good time as we were working on a local house. I worked in the bathroom ripping up the flooring and helping hang the sheet rock around the tub. We worked at the site until noonish and then headed back to the campus.
After having our business meeting and religious project we went out to eat at the local Mexican Resturant then headed down to the Riverwalk for the evening. We walked over to the Alamo ,took the river tour and went over to the Tower of the Americas before heading back to the hotel. Sunday morning I slept a bit longer although I did go down to the lobby at 8:30 to grab a waffle and some muffens and took them back to the room and went back to bed for an hour. Finally it came time for my friend to pick me up and take me to the airport for my 2:40 flight through Atlanta back to Albany.

As I was sitting at the bar in the airport killing time before my flight I got a call saying the departure of my flight was pushed back 30 minutes. This really didn't bother me since wither way I still had a 3 hr layover in Atlanta. After arriving in Atlanta I grabbed a bite to eat and made some phone calls and was glad to see that my flight was on time with the good possiblity of being early. Well once we got on the plane they once again came over the loud speaker and said that it would be a few minutes while they waited for an oxygen ball for the pilots which apparently the first one was empty so they had to send for another. Since we were still at the gate tehy decided to wait for some people to board whose flight had just got in since there was the delay already. We finally got in the air about 30 later and got into Albany about 12:15. By the time I got to my car and made it home it was around 1 AM and I headed strat for bed since I had to go into work early since I had my Doctor's appointment that evening.

OVerall I had a good time in San Antonio. This was my second time out there and I had as much fun as I did last time I was there. It was also nice to go somewhere warm...I wore shorts and flipflops on the return trip and my firend had the top down on his car on the way to the airport. Needless to say I was freezing when I stepped outside of the airport in Albany as I waited for the shuttle to the car. Anyway despite the delays it was a great weekend.

-c