Part One: Friday, The Departure Saga

I thought I had it all together for this trip, I really did. I researched the heck out of planes, eventually settling on flights with Northwest Airlines. We would start in Baltimore, connect through Detroit, and land in Appleton. We would rent a car in Appleton, drive the 30 miles to Green Bay, and have plenty of time for a nap and a leisurely lunch before all the festivities got underway.

Alas.

Everything started out just fine. We got to Baltimore in the wee hours before dawn, checked in and checked our bags, got through security in record time, and boarded the plane.

Then the pilot came on. "You folks on the right might be wondering why there's a fire engine outside next to the wing..."

And so it began. Evidently a valve in the fuel line malfunctioned, causing the fuel to not stay in the plane. This is not desirable, evidently. Oddly enough, the only way to see if this is serious is to remove all the fuel from the plane, then put it all back in to see if the valve continues to fail. This procedure takes awhile, so everyone with connections (us) had to get off the plane and rebook.

So we did. Northwest was quite helpful, actually, and rebooked us into Green Bay, arriving at 4:30. Okay, that's not so bad. However, the rebooking was on American Airlines, connecting through...

(Dunh... dunh... DUNH.....)

O'Hare.

I tried not to think too much about that. We went and had breakfast. I switched the car rental pickup to Green Bay, and acquiesced to the $50 drop-off fee since we were going to drop the car in Appleton. We reboarded and flew to Chicago, where we had a three-hour layover.

We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's, because if I have to eat lunch in an airport, I can at least eat something decent.

Then we sat around some more, waiting for our 3:30 flight to Green Bay.

This time we didn't even board before it got cancelled -- unspecified mechanical difficulties -- but we quickly got rebooked on the next flight to Green Bay at 5:30. This whole time I was madly texting the lovely and talented Weetabix about the changes in plans and she had been texting me back with alternatives and we thought we had it All Arranged, until this.

Even then, she suggested I call Esteban and get directions to the ranch so that we could meet up for the sleigh ride party and partake of brats and booyah and fluff and the charity raffle, so I did, and he did, and we thought we might.

But by the time we got to Green Bay we were wiped. In a small bit of miraculousness, our luggage actually made it with us! We went over to the Enterprise counter, where I groveled prettily and tried to get the $50 fee waived. No such luck, but they did upgrade us to a Cadillac. Yes! Caddy! Okay then!

Off to St. Brendan's, where we decided that we really were way too tired to attempt another drive in the dark on unfamiliar roads. Instead? Dinner in the pub, then beddy-bye.

(To be continued...)