Terrible Tuesday

Well, for having a great time in Vegas, the trip home was horrible!! Bethany got me to the airport at 4:40 in the morning for a 6:00 flight. There were about 50 people in line for American Airlines. 25 of them were wearing "Woodside Family Vacation in Las Vegas" shirts. Neat concept, but they were on another 6:00 flight, didn't know how to check in (one person was doing all of them), they had huge Rubbermaid crates and boxes to check in, and everyone was getting ticked!!
I ran over to an empty kiosk and got signed in, checked luggage and ran to security. Once there, they yelled "Bag check!" Of course, mine was still in the machine, so I waited and waited for someone to come and check, and of course, it was the bag in front of mine, and not mine!!
By the time I got to my gate (at the end of the D concourse), there were only a handful of people left to get on the plane. We were to leave at 6:00. Bethany was excited because she was going to walk Tally, the dog at the park that we would fly over. She had a white sheet so I could see her. We took off at 6:13, and I later found out that she saw two other jets take off, going on the other flight pattern, figured they were me and went to the gas station, just in time to see me take off!! That's ok, I got a picture of the park anyway!!
I won't sit on the row directly on top of the wing any more, though. Hard to get pics. I fell asleep after I saw the Grand Canyon and woke up as we began our descent into Dallas.
Once on the ground, I only had 55 minutes to make my connection. Once again, I had to go from one side of the airport to the other, but I will say that the Skylink is really nice and you get there quickly. I found my gate, but the departure was changed from 11:35 to 12:35. So I called Bruce to let him know he wouldn't be leaving work as early as he thought to come and get me.
Then they changed the gate. And bumped us back to 1:10. So instead of getting into Charlotte at 3, it would now be 5. Finally got on the plane, and waited to take off. Got lots of nice shots from the plane, as I had a better seat three rows in front of the wing.
As we came into Charlotte, it was cloudy. The pilot told us that they were having showers and traffic was backed up. We would hold in pattern for 15 minutes. Ok, now I had to go to the bathroom. Don't like to do that on planes, but decided I needed to.
Good thing!! We circled for an hour!!! Then came the pilot's voice, "Folks, we can't circle any longer, we're being diverted to Greensboro, NC!!" Are you kidding me??? Almost out of fuel??
We flew the 20 minutes to Greensboro, got refueled and finally took off about an hour later. Poor Bruce!! He had been in Charlotte since 4:15 and I was getting in after 8!! I was glad to see him, and the luggage didn't take too long. After paying $9 for parking, we drove to Rock Hill. Both of us were famished, but we got appetizers at Chili's. Wanted to go to Bob Evans, but it was closed. Still, we had a funny young waitress and enjoyed the time.
Next event -- we are driving home and leave Columbia, get to Horrell Hill (about 25 miles from home) and the fuel light comes on!! I told Bruce that we should have an 1/8 of a tank at that point. There are about 3-4 gas stations along the way. Of course all of them are closed!! The second fuel alarm comes on as we are crossing the Wateree River. It's after midnight and we are wondering who we would call, since we are together and none of our kids are close. I'm thinking there is no way I want us to run out of gas on this dark, lonely highway!!
Fortunately, we made it to the Huddle House at 441 and 378, a mere 5 miles from home. The gas station was closed, but we were able to pump gas with our card. We finally got home, I unloaded one suitcase and decided to go to bed.
I'm writing this on Wednesday after I went to the doctor for my swollen feet. I'm the third person she's seen this week with leg problems that has been to Vegas. I was there 2-1/2 hours. Didn't have much of an appetite today, which is good. I'm making a conscientious effort to lose this weight I gained from sitting so much in graduate classes and being stressed out from my class. Let the summer at home begin!! Will post pics tomorrow.