Travel Nightmare

So I was able to go home for Thanksgiving, and it was great to see some of you while in Utah. The Masked Mallard invited my family over to his parents' for Thanksgiving. I went to a couple of get-togethers, met some new people (Thanks for the invite Carona), watched the Big Game (BYU 17-Utah 10, in another last minute nail-biter), went on a date to the Messiah Sing-in at Abravanel Hall (Thanks for the invite Princessplumeria). I had lots of good, home-cooked food, stuffed myself on all kinds of pie, and had a great time all around.

And then I had to go back to New Jersey. I had worried about the flight from NJ to Utah, but not the flight back. I should have. I had an hour layover in Chicago that turned into a 3 hour layover, that turned into a cancelled flight, that turned into a 5 hour layover and rebooked flight to Minneapolis. In Minneapolis I had an hour layover with another airline turn into an hour and a half layover with a 45 minute wait on the runway. I finally got to Newark seven hours later than anticipated. And then, to add insult to injury, when I finally got to our hotel, I found that my driver's license was missing. Aaaaaarrrrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!! I stayed up another 2 hours trying to talk to different airports and airlines lost and found offices to track it down to not much avail. SLC didn't have it. Minneapolis had changed its number, and Chicago had an automated system that could take up to 10 business days to get back to me.

The next day I called the Utah DMV, and they said to get a replacement DL I have to be in Utah. That doesn't help me much here in NJ, especially since I use my DL to get through airport security. But they could send me a 'counter permit'. Which I just recieved today. But it looks kind of dubious, as the form is filled out by hand. At least it is better than nothing.

I called TSA and the recording said I could use other forms of ID to get through airport security other than my DL. So I can get through, I'll just need to go extra early on my trip back to account for any snags that might crop up.

If there is one thing I have learned from all this it is traveling around the holidays is a nightmare. Stay on the side of the country you are on for the holidays. And if not, give yourself plenty of time for travel or you could end up a total wreck.