Stuck in Cleveland

Silly me....I thought that being stranded in Cleveland was only the premise of a sitcom.  It didn't occur to me it could/would actually happen.


Yesterday my husband and I left home with the intention of flying to Houston, where he plans to participate in the National Senior Games.  On the way to the airport, he received a call from Orbitz indicating that our departure time would be delayed.  We realized we would probably miss our connecting flight in Cleveland.


As soon as we arrived at the airport, we hurried to the ticket counter hoping that we could get on an earlier flight or some other flight that would allow us to make it to Houston.  The airline agent was very helpful, but so many flights had been cancelled or delayed, that he could not find us a flight that had empty seats and would accomplish our goal.  We finally decided to go ahead with the originally scheduled flight and hope for the best.  i.e.  Maybe the flight out of Cleveland would be delayed too???


Our flight was about 2 hours late.  Since the time between flights in Cleveland was only about an hour, the situation was pretty much hopeless.  On arriving in Cleveland, we optimistically went to the departure gate, but the flight was long gone.


I got on the phone and made a hotel reservation while my husband waited at the airline's customer service counter to get us booked on an early morning flight to Houston.  By the time we got to the hotel, we only had about 5 hours to sleep before we needed to head back to the airport.  Difficulty in settling down, resulted in only 4 hours sleep.


Being stuck in Cleveland may be a joke, but we certainly did run into some pleasant people....the airline rep, the hotel staff, the taxi drivers to and from the hotel.  They were all very congenial.  We didn't encounter anyone rude or surly.  We did not run into Betty White, but they were all nice folks.  


Being stuck in Cleveland wasn't so bad after all, and now we are "Hot in Houston."