Stranded in the Southern Snow

The day before snowmageddon

Two weeks ago I was with a group of campus ministers for a network and collaboration event near Charleston, SC.  I was traveling from Houston, TX, where I attended a meeting for Disciple Project, which is a faith leadership camp I help lead each summer.  I was excited to be in Charleston, staying a block from the beach and networking with other campus ministry folks.

This was the beginning...

I arrived Charleston Sunday evening January 26, the next day, I enjoyed a run on the beach and lovely sunshine, even though it wasn't warm.  Monday evening I received word that my Wednesday flight was cancelled, so I worked to re-book  for Tuesday night, which was later cancelled, so I was moved up to Tuesday at noon, and then I finally caught the last flight out of Charleston on Tuesday at 8:45am, at this point I was excited and confident that I would beat the winter storm, I didn't even pack my carry on bag to be stranded--BIG MISTAKE.  I always pack my carry on in case I'm stranded--except this time.

My Charleston to Atlanta flight was less than an hour long and right on time, I had enough time in Atlanta to grab coffee and a little breakfast, I made it to my gate and boarded my plane to Chattanooga, all on time--I called Rob to let him know we were on our way.  We were cleared to land in Chattanooga, I was excited.  After a few minutes, I knew something wasn't right.  Our pilot then put the nose up and head back into the clouds.   He came on the intercom and said, "Folks, I'm afraid to tell you, we are on our way to Atlanta, the runway in Chattanooga is short and they can't seem to keep the snow off of it."

My view of Chattanooga from the plane

We returned to the gate in Atlanta around 2pm, after waiting around for 30 minutes, we were told our flight was cancelled.  I started calling hotels at this point--knowing I was going to be stranded, everything with an airport shuttle was sold out.  I hadn't eaten any lunch at this point, and I was fairly hungry so I went to find food and decided I would figure out what to do.  Of course because I have a lot of friends who travel often, I resort to making a post on facebook to see if anyone else was going to be stranded in the Atlanta airport overnight.  Not long after that post, a friend responded that her husband would be traveling home from a work trip--he would be on the 9:45pm flight to Chattanooga that I was on stand-by for.

Atlanta Airplanes in the snow

  Since I wouldn't be leaving the Atlanta airport, I decided to hunker down--I saw a few guys getting a stack of Delta blankets, I thought, what a great idea! I asked if they could get one extra--I later found out they were a group from Augustana College in South Dakota (where I went to college!)--I totally found the folks I could hang out with, if need-be.

I made my way to the gate around 8:30pm to see if I could get on the standby flight.  I met my friend's husband and we had a nice conversation--even though we hadn't really ever met, it was great to have someone familiar around.  9:45pm comes and goes, we haven't boarded, 10:30 comes, it was close to 11pm before they began boarding--I didn't even know if I would get a seat.  Sure enough, I got the last seat on the plane!  Super tired at this point but boy I WAS EXCITED!

Rob and I decided that I wouldn't call him until we land in Chattanooga--there had been too many false alarms of him leaving to pick me up that day.  No sleeping in the airport for this girl!  We go through the safety talks, get in line for de-icing and then eventually we were told that there were electrical issues in the plane, so we had to go back to the gate, we are pushing 1:00am at this point.  After standing around a few minutes, they find us a different plane--we re-board once again!  Safety talks happen, It's after 2am, but we are in the de-icing process--this was seaming to take longer than normal.  I decided that I hadn't eating in about 9 hours, so I enjoyed a bowl of lucky charms I had stashed away.  It's now almost 3am and the pilot comes on overhead and says, "The de-icing process took longer than we expected, and I'm not at my limit and no longer able to fly without the FAA taking away my pilots license, we will be going back to the gate."  By this point I was TIRED!  I had been up since 6am the previous day--we were later told that we had to leave the gate area to re-book our tickets since there were no employees left at the airport to handle our ticketing issue.

My friends husband and I stuck together--it's now about 3:30am, we went to rebook our tickets, which we were both rebooked for Wednesday night. We called groome shuttle (a shuttle that runs from Atlanta to Chattanooga) and booked a seat on the shuttle later in the afternoon.  It was also coffee time--I'm pushing staying up for 24 hours.... I haven't done this since my last church lock-in.

We started to research our options of trying to get home, my new friend secured a SUV rental car, we research road continues, planned a route and eventually we decided to attempt to drive back to Chattanooga.  This would be my 2nd road trip from an airport to a destination with people I just met--though this time it was a friend's spouse... but nonetheless... someone I just met.  A couple years ago it was a car with 5 strangers...

The interstate was all ice

We begin our journey with the iPad map and google maps on my phone in hand--I was the navigator extrodinaire.  Of course, upon reaching 285N, there was an accident so we immediately had to go to plan B, which was to navigate the side roads that paralleled the freeway, whatever roads we could find that looked drivable.  It worked.... it took time, but we eventually made it to 285N where there were no cars going north and all the lanes going south were filled with cars, semi trucks and school buses---that didn't have any people in them--it was slightly erie.  We'd occasionally see people walking--but I've never seen anything like this.

Abandon cars were everywhere

Eventually we saw a tanker truck and a couple cars, driving towards us on the Interstate, we assume that this is not good and we follow suite, turning around--this would be the first time in my life that I've rode the wrong way on the freeway.  As we go up the exit ramp, (the wrong way of course) the tanker truck starts to slide backwards... slightly terrifying, but my partner-in-crime had ninja driving skills and as the truck driver told us to come along in between the sliding truck and a cement wall---I'm thankful for ninja driving skills and the fact that he grew up in the Northern part of the country.

Stopped traffic for miles on I-75 South 

Once we hit I-75, we saw miles and miles of people backed up in traffic going the other direction that was not moving at all.  I have seriously never seen anything like this--not moving at all.  Needless to say it was 4 hours later, we arrived Chattanooga, for this I was grateful.

It's one thing to be stranded and have cancelled flights, it's another things to be strung along for hours, changing planes, and then ending up with exhaustion no sleep.

This was a fairly terrible experience, but I chose to keep smiling and make the most of it.  I was thankful to find community with others around me, eating with random strangers at Buffalo Wild Wings, running into the group from Augustana College-- I enjoyed many stories and laughter along the way.  I experienced wonderful hospitality and generosity from others--if you open yourself up to others, you will be amazed at the stories you hear and the joy you'll experience.

After full day travel adventure with a stranger, I'm thankful to have a new friend--If I had been by myself I would have had 2 full days in the Atlanta airport... unprepared to be stranded.  Sure, unfortunate experiences might happen in life, you have a choice in how you respond and you have a choice to make the most of it--in the end, you have stories to tell and you can rejoice that it's over.  To my travel adventure amigo, I say many thanks for the adventures and your generosity!

May my mantra in life continue to drive me as I strive to impact the lives of others by how I life my life.  I've really never had an experience like this, but I'm thankful for safety--staying up for 36 hours was not enjoyable and it took a few days to recharge.  After this experience, I won't get lazy in how I travel, and I will always pack to be stranded.