American Airlines and Buddy Holly's Glasses

I am in Lubbock Texas today, a nice town really, home to the Buddy Holly center, and Texas Tech University. While those that know me know my affection for my Buddy, I am actually here to see my daughter graduate from Tech. She did, and it is awesome, and I am so proud of her. But this post in not about that, she deservers one of her own for that. This is about getting here...

Well we had a plan, we booked the flights in February, and it was all worked out. My Darling Wife (MDW from now on), and I were to fly from Houston to Dallas, and connect to Lubbock, my mom and stepdad were to meet us at the airport, their plane coming in about an hour earlier. Then we meet at the rental car counter and get a car and head to our hotel. Good plan. But "no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy".

We had some spectacular storms hit Houston Thursday night, but nothing on the far west side where we live. Just a cool Light Show from the lightning. While it snapped branches and made a bit of a mess in other parts of Houston. But no, this did not affect our flight. We left early, packed and not arguing, which is unusual for MDW and I when travelling. No big fights, just little stresses bubbling up, and I usually can't sleep before a trip. Come to think of it, I slept great. Should have been a sign. We got to the airport early, checked our bag, and wandered the airport, playing the usual games (where is he going, can you believe that outfit, that guy is a spy...), and wound up getting a snack at the McD's because we didn't know when we would get a chance again. On time and all is good, right?

No.

Mechanical problems had grounded our plane, and moved the departure time to 1:00, which was when we were to be catching our connecting flight them. Okay, go to the ticket counter and work on a new connection. Well they could not get us on the connecting flight, and well we could take one standy, no we will both go. Get us there, make it so. No we can't the plane has continued to push it's departure time further and further out. We get booked on a Continental flight instead, to try to connect with a 3 PM lubbock flight. Grabbed our bag and got over to Continental 12:00 PM for a 12:25 flight. Yeah right, that is going to happen. We did not even get through the ticketing process in by 12:30. Not to mention the security checkpoint. So we went back to American. The deal was, there was no way to guaruntee us making it to lubbock. They could get us to Dallas, but not guaruntee Lubbock. And we were not likely to make Lubbock before midnight. What to do?

We rented a car and drove.

By the time we got a rental car and got on the road it was now 4 PM, and we had at least 8 hours or more of driving ahead. Well it is a pretty drive, through a lot of Texas Hill country, and we both just rode along and made the best of it. A few tense moments, and a very tiring drive, we finally got here a 1:30 AM. So we left at 9:00 AM, and arrived here in Lubbock at 1:30, 16 1/2 hours to get a direct distance of 524 miles.

But it was worth it, and I would do it again, with no qualms. Okay, I would prefer to know we were going to drive, so I could skip the whole airport part, we would have been here by dinner time, no problem.

So now we are planning the trip home. I think we will stop by Austin and sleep there, as it will be late by the time we leave here. I have had a great time visiting with my Mom, and Stepdad, and enjoying the local cuisine and weather. I have no idea what the rest of the day has in store, but at least I got to see my lovely child walk her graduation, and I got to visit the Buddy Holly Center and see the actual strat Buddy used to play. Both were amazing.