Saturday Night in Atlanta

[Written Saturday, June 30, 2007.]

The Atlanta airport this evening is busy and noisy and frustrating. I was very glad to be on the ground, but there was little other good news. Our plane had to wait on the tarmac to get to a gate. Then there was congestion in the baggage unloading area, so it took awhile for our bags to appear, at which point I was sure that I was going to miss my flight. Then a long line that moved quickly through customs, and the line for security (don't know why we're going through security - we did so in Athens - but I suppose not all arriving international passengers have been through appropriate security). Then it was a dash to gate E3 to make sure I could get on the Baltimore flight, which had been moved next door to E5, which was still boarding a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth. Our flight was at 8:05; at 8:20 they moved us from E5 to E18.

Our departure time kept slipping, and then, just as they said that they were beginning to board, I heard some thunder. A look out the window confirmed that a thunderstorm had arrived. Soon they announced that the ramp was closed (I had a similar long delay at Tampa a couple years ago). At this point I surrendered and called Delta to get a flight for Sunday afternoon. Between the lady on the phone and the gate agent, they put me on a flight for 2:30 Sunday, and I went in search of a hotel room. I stopped at the airport information counter in the main terminal. The nice guys there were still at work (it was now just after 10 PM), and they pointed me to the hotel courtesy phones and the hotel shuttles. I called the good old Hampton Inn, got a reservation, and went out to the shuttles in the pouring rain. The Hampton shuttle was just pulling out, but I waved him down, and we got to the hotel safely.