Returning to Nightmute

Christmas vacation is over.... Time to head back to the village. 

I started my journey at 8:33 this morning (Saturday 1/4) in Cleveland. I waited forever at security, but I made it to my gate with plenty of time. I arrived in Houston, TX in time for lunch. I am way over dressed. I guess long underwear and wool socks are a bit too extreme. Everyone else is in shorts and flip flops. 

1/4 @ 3:00 pm 

I boarded the plane in Houston to San Francisco with no problems. When I landed, however, I found out my flight to Anchorage has been cancelled due to lack of crew for the plane.

 I am currently standing in a mile long line for customer service trying to see what I can do next. Hopefully I'll make it to Anchorage soon. 

1/4 @ 9 pm 

I waited 5 1/2 hours in line to talk to customer service. I made 5 new friends while waiting in line. Everyone had their flights cancelled and they were trying to get rescheduled as well. There were 2 girls about my age heading for a vacation in Hawaii and an older gentleman also going to Hawaii. There was a lady trying to get home to Chicago and 2 guys in the army trying to get back to Anchorage. We had tons of fun waiting in line together. 

I eventually got up to talk to someone, and there were no available flight to Anchorage until Sat 1/11. I could go on standby for the next Anchorage flights, but they were all overbooked. The chances of getting on were very slim. So I asked if I could go back to Cleveland and then return to Anchorage on the 11th or 12th. The lady rescheduled me to fly back to CLE in Monday 1/6 and arrive on Tuesday 1/7. Then fly out of CLE on Sun 1/12 to Anchorage. 

I decided to get a hotel for 2 days and explore San Franciso. 

1/5 @ 7:00 am

My mother decided to do some research and she discovered that Alaska Airlines had open seats out of San Franciso to Bethel for today. I called and a nice lady helped me rearrange my flights again so I could get to Bethel by tomorrow morning. I get to leave SFO at 2:45pm to Seattle. I then leave SEA at 6:15pm to arrive in Anchorage at 9:30pm. I then leave ANC tomorrow morning to get to Bethel around 7:30 am. So far everything is scheduled and on time. I may actually make it to NME after all!

1/6 @ 5:30 am

Everything went as planned. My flights to Seattle and Anchorage were on time and pretty uneventful. I get to Anchorage around 9:00 on and spent the night in the airport. My suitcase however is still in San Francisco. I hope it will make it to Anchorage before I leave. I found a nice quiet place and found a bench to sleep on. There were about 4 or 5 other people sleeping in the same area.  My flight to Bethel is on time and I should be there by 7:30 am. 

1/6 @ 8:00 am

Landed in Bethel.  Uneventful flight. I asked a lady about my bag and she said that I need to call United and get it expedited to the village.  So, I might not be seeing my bag for a while. I'll just live out of my backpack for another day or so.  

1/6 @ 4 pm

I got a shuttle for ERA and I met up with everyone else waiting to go to the villages.  The planes have not been flying for over a week and everyone is trying to get home. Nightmute was still on weather delay, so I got to hang out at the airport all day waiting to hear if the plane will be cancelled.  At least I was with other people I knew. We played games and caught up while sitting around.  Finally at 2:30, they called Nightmute and we were on our way home.  :) I was super happy.  Everyone cheered as each plane was called to leave.  I felt so good to be home.  I'm not traveling anywhere anytime soon.