And so it begins: subtitled Why I hate the Atlanta Airport

(View of the mountains this morning from Tracy's house)
Well, it is 11:30 Vegas time, and I am ensconced on my sister's couch, as she and Noah slave away at work. I feel especially bad for Tracy because she had to go to work this morning on very little sleep. As I have my 8th cup of coffee this morning, let me regale you with the awesomeness that is my (Cue funny echo voice here)..."Journey to Las Vegas".

****Disclaimer: The following is solely the opinion of the writer, as I am sure, in general, Atlanta is a nice city, and not the hellhole the author will lead readers to believe it is, but if you really have that much of an issue, discontinue reading now, and start your own damn blog!

Everyone kept telling me how easy the trip would be, that they have never had any issues in flying before, yadda yadda yadda. Hop, skip and a jump, no problem, I thought.
Mom, dad, and I arrived at the airport at 5pm because I like to be very early. My flight was supposed to leave Rochester at 7:25. Looking at the board, it is not leaving for Atlanta now until 8:25. Okay, start the time with an hour delay, no problem.
Go through the line and all the security, and I am still feeling good. That is, until I get inside, and I see that now the time to leave is 9:03. So, that does not leave me very long to try to make my connection in Atlanta to Las Vegas. Still doable, I am assured at the gate, just move quickly. The problem is that there were serious thunderstorms in Atlanta and no chance to land.
They just make an announcement that we will be boarding in 20 minutes and earlier than first thought, when the bad news is given, the flight will not leave until 10-somethingish now, making me miss my connection to Las Vegas by a long while.
Now the mass rush to the gatekeepers to be the first to secure new tickets. The good news? I can still get to Atlanta tonight. The bad? I cannot leave for Vegas until, at the earliest, Tuesday night...and to top that all off, I get to pay for my own motel, but at a reduced $45.99 a night! Great! It began to feel like I was absolutely doomed to spend the night in the world's worst airport in the world.
Like a gift from above, the clouds parted, and they allowed us to take off much earlier than the 10ish we were given, there was still hope! (right after I had a mini-meltdown on the Air-Tram guy, for which I still feel badly because it was not the poor guy's fault, he didn't make the weather)
I needed to make a quick connection, or so I thought, and it would be close, damn near impossible. In fact, as I got there, I called Tracy and gave her the disappointing information, there was no way I would make it now that we were stuck waiting to gate. That is when I got the second shock, I would be fine, our other plane was not taking off right away, according to her checking the info online! There was a God/Goddess and they wanted me to gamble! :)
Fast forward to the longest wait in the world, at the most awful airport in the world. I hate to upset the good people of Atlanta, because usually they are some of the nicest people. Except if they work at the airport. I have been fortunate to avoid that airport for at least 4 years, and I do believe that they are as far now on their construction as they were 4 years ago. I really really really really really dislike this airport! I have never had luck here, I have missed connections, dealt with rude "gatekeepers", even had a flight cancelled that left me stranded there for quite a while! It is loud and annoying, especially after waiting all evening in one airport only to wait another 2 hours in another airport.
Let us just fast forward through that wait, and the horrible flight with tired and cranky flight attendants, an awful crying for no reason baby with a "modern mommy" who believes in letting him express himself by crying it out, the non-English speaking, kind of stinky (we all were) seatmate who insists in being all up in my personal space. We will just fast forward through all of that and the lack of sleep, to the seeing of my sister. It was 2:30 am Vegas time, which means it is 5:30 on the east Coast, and I have been up for almost 24 hours. Awesome, and now I am here!
So, I am thinking a nap and then see what the plans are for this evening... so I can get on with the real adventure!
(Here is the one picture I managed to snap of the Strip as we drove away from the airport this morning... I felt hung over to the max!)