Early Morning Disasters

Last Friday morning I was headed home from Northern California. My flight was to leave the airport in Sacramento at 6:20 AM. The hotel was supposedly 15 minutes from the airport. My plan was to be up by 4AM and leave the hotel by 4:30. I would drop the car off and take the shuttle and be at the airport by 5. I was flying Delta and would have priority status, so I could get right through check-in and security and have time to spare. Good planning does not always work out.

I got up without a problem. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and was loading the car by 4:25. Ever since that fiasco with locking the keys in the trunk I do not lay the keys in the trunk. I set them on the bumper. As I closed the trunk I realize the keys were going to be trapped, but it was too late to do anything about it. Luckily the key-bob was on the outside and I pushed the button to unlock the car doors and popped the trunk. Good save, except that the key was now bent and could not be fully inserted into the ignition. I look at it with a knot in my stomach and sat down on the curb to see if I could un-bend it without breaking it. It straightened somewhat and I tried it in the ignition again, but it still didn't work. The only choice was to again use the concrete and pressure to try to straighten it some more. I decided the worst thing that could happen was that I would break the key, but it didn't work now, so I wouldn't be any worse off than I was. This time it was straight enough and I was able to start the car. YEA!!!!

I set the GPS and headed to the airport. My first turn was onto the entrance ramp onto I-5. Hmmm. The ramp was closed for construction. I punched the 'detour' option into the GPS and followed the directions. The GPS apparently presumed I-5 was the problem and not the entrance ramp. What was supposed to be a 15 minute drive actually took 45 minutes. And it was dark. I think I would have seem some interesting terrain, but I couldn't see anything and was starting to panic that I would miss the plane. I was 5:30 when I reached the car rental return. Normally there are shuttles one after another. You check in the car and get on the shuttle. Not so today. I waited almost 10 minutes for a shuttle. This doesn't seem long, unless your plane is scheduled to leave in 50 minutes. I forced myself to breath slowly and be calm. I would either make it or not and there was nothing I could do about it.

I did have an express lane to check-in, but there was no express lane for security and a very long line. It is now 5:50--30 minutes before my plane is scheduled to leave. I was amazed at how fast the security line moved. I timed it and was through security in 10 minutes. I made it to the gate where they were loading the plane. And took a deep breath of relief.