Friday, September 12: All Roads Lead to Rome, Though Some Take Longer Than Others

Traveling abroad is an amazing experience, but it can be tough to leave the good old USA. An adventure awaits, but you might feel a little sad leaving behind the creature comforts of home for more than a little while. Of course, it’s tough to feel bittersweet about leaving America when the final kick out the door is provided by Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

After waking up at 5:00 a.m. (to try and prepare ourselves to sleep on the flight), Brandi and I finished packing, went to the gym, got ready, and made it to the airport at 10:00. Despite concerns about hurricane traffic causing problems at the airport, we got through security without any problems, and we were all ready for our 12:00 flight.

Make that 12:40.

Make that 1:30.

So Chicago, apparently jealous of all the weather attention that Texas was getting, decided to have a little storm of its own, pushing much of the incoming traffic back a little. We were assured that our connections would be pushed back as well.

But that wasn’t the story once we got into the air—Rome was not listed among the connecting gates, and we asked a couple flight attendants about our flight. They didn’t have much information, but they were doubtful about our being able to connect. We apparently made quite a stink, because when the plane landed several people around us were wishing us luck and telling us to go ahead of them. One pretty old man said to me, “I hope you make your flight, and [turning to Brandi] I hope you miss it so you can stay with me tonight.”

Our flight had left when we got off the plane. The solution ended up being a flight to Paris (itself half an hour late) and an Alitalia flight to Rome. Brandi and I were given seats two rows apart, but we were able to get someone to move so we could sit together. Not only that, but the other person in our middle section never showed up. The woman seated right behind us was also on the flight to Chicago---we talked briefly about our struggles and our plans in Italy. She was planning on meeting her husband in Rome.

Once we got in the air and had some dinner, our little game of musical chairs began. We kept squirming around and switching seats to try and get comfortable, but even with three seats it was really difficult.

Almost halfway through our flight, when we were close to the southern tip of Greenland and the outside temperature was -65 degrees Fahrenheit, we decided to break down and take our sleeping pills. The pills were some sort of off brand that had these impenetrable security features built in---I think the idea is that you expend so much energy opening the pills that you are too tired to actually need them. But they helped---we slept okay on the second half of the flight.