Home!

I'm home!  And it was a pain in the ass too.

I had a great breakfast buffet at the hotel!  I took the hotel shuttle to the airport.  We left at 8:15 and I got through all the security and passport and walking and made it to my gate about 9:25.  So yeah, it took about an hour to get through everything.

My gate was at the end of the terminal (of course), and there was 1 other gate there, so Iberia roped off the very end and they started pushing us through passport checks/boarding pass checks an hour ahead of time.

I had an aisle seat at the rear of the plane.  At first they closed boarding and the girl in the center seat moved to an open seat further up.  Then that person showed up, so she moved.  Then those people showed up and she had to come back to her center seat. I was a little annoyed at this point, because we sat there an extra 10-15 minutes because we were "waiting on some passengers."  Apparently we could wait today, but not yesterday when a bunch of us were running to make the plane.

So, we get to Chicago.  At least one airport has a fast line for people who only have carry-on luggage, but apparently it's not Chicago.  The line wasn't too bad, though. 

Got through customs, got past the baggage claim, and then you have to go through arrivals to get to your next plane.  So I'm wandering around arrivals, and eventually see a security-type guy and he tells me the train is broken to I have to take a bus to the next terminal.  And there's the line.  It was really long, and it did not move very fast.  I was glad I had a 2 hour layover!

So I get to the correct terminal, then I have to go through security again.  I came in in the middle, and that line said Pre-Check.  So I followed a sign to the right and went through security way down at one end.

Get through security and now I have to figure out where my gate is.  There's gates H, J, K, L and I check and I'm at L22, which is at the opposite end from where I am.  So I follow a sign that says Terminal L, but then the signs stop and I don't know where to go.  I keep going into K, and eventually find a damn map, and it shows that I'm way down the wrong way.

So I find my way to Terminal L.  Now I have to find the section with Gate 22.  I've been checking the Departures boards as I go, to make sure the plane is on time.  I'm around Gate 20 when I get to another board, and now it says Gate 10A.  So I have to go back into a completely different branch to get there, where I had already been when I was buying water.

I get to Gate 10A and there's a plane for Salt Lake City there.  We wait, and they board and then nothing happens.  It gets to our boarding time, and nothing happens.  Then we get told we're moving to Gate 6.  So we all move down there.  And wait.  And then the Captain gets on the intercom and tells us that a plane didn't work and they had to get everyone off and onto a different plane and then that sort of cascaded so everything was late.  Our plane was on time, it just couldn't find an empty gate.

So we wait, and then we get sent back to Gate 10A again.  At least now the Salt Lake plane is gone.  Overall, we ended up being about 45 minutes late, so it wasn't too bad.  And I'm home!