Its always something...

Well today started out wonderfully. We stayed overnight in Chicago so we wouldn't miss anymore planes. The bed was fantastic, a great buffet breakfast and a shuttle ride that took us to the terminal. Kelly's bags finally materialized and we headed to the KLM counter. We received our boarding passes for the first 2 legs of the trip, but were told that we would need to pickup the Dehli-Ahmadebad pass in India. That should have been a red flag - but it wasn't and we happily headed to our first flight.

Pauline had done well. She had booked Kelly and I in business class for the Chicago-Amsterdam leg. These seats were like sitting in your favorite recliner - including a massage option. We dined and watched movies on demand. I chose "Baby Mama" and I noticed Kelly's screen had "Dark Knight". I managed to take a little snooze as well - but was planning on waiting for the second leg - which would be a 10 hour flight to get most of my sleep. Second big mistake.

We left the first plane with 50 minutes to make it to our next flight. The gate - of course - was on the other end of the concourse. A foot race ensued. We made it in plenty of time - I could tell because the boarding line was about a block long and the plane status already said 'boarding'. It took about 1/2 hour for us to make it through and find our seats. These weren't as nice as the last. They were in coach. Kellie lucked out with an aisle seat. I got the window. Most people like the window - but it traps you in. The woman in the middle seat reminded me of Jim's Aunt Nellie and neither her daughter or she wanted to move to allow me in. I explained to them that I would not be able to manage to climb over them without someone getting hurt. I waited while they moved to allow me in. The seat was cramped but if I didn't drink anything I should be able to make it 10 hours - especially since I planned on sleeping the most of the way.

Unfortunately for me the 3 year old in the seat behind me had different plans. He and his sister took turns crying or kicking the back of the seats in some sort of melody they were working out. I truly felt like Elaine from "Seinfeld". Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. Thank goodness for Jimmy loading up the iPod with lots of movies, music and books on tape. I listened to "Marley and Me" and silently wept at the sad parts.

We landed in New Dehli at 3am. The fog around the terminal was so thick that flights were being cancelled due to low visibility. We had to go through customs, grab our bags and take a bus to the domestic side. The fog just added to the scariness of the adventure. I told Kellie that we could be taken anywhere - truthfully - since neither of us speak the language or know what is proper procedure the 50 Rupees that I paid to take the 'free shuttle' to the domestic side may have just been a rip off - I did get a receipt though.

When we made it to the Domestic side we found out that we were at the wrong terminal. We were at 1B and needed to be at 1A. Two baggage handlers helped walk us back through the foggy streets to the other terminal. We passed 3 heavily armed guards and heard gunshots in the distance - at least I think it was distance - but it was definitely gunshots.

We waited for the Air India ticket counter to open and walked up with our passports expecting to receive boarding passes and head to Ahmadebad and our friends waiting for us at St. Xaviers College. However, the red flag that should have flown high before came back to haunt us. There were no reservations, we weren't in the system and the flight was full. We were stranded until the next day when another flight would head out - but we would have to pay the $8000 rupees per ticket to make it on board.

Thanks to "The Amazing Race" I knew there had to be other airlines heading to our destination. I checked and found seats on a 9pm flight. These would be $8000 Rupees for both tickets - a bargain! We purchased the tickets - but had to walk back to terminal 1B in order to board our flight. The luggage handler walked us back through the fog (it really was thick!) and we began the marathon waiting session - 15 hours in a terminal! Unbelievable.

Thankfully I had taken the opportunity to talk to the terminal manager. He allowed me to use his Internet connection to contact the head of the workshop. In exchange I fixed his printer which wouldn't connect and kept giving him error messages. Later in the day the members at St. Xaviers had found us an earlier flight with a different airline. This was good because shortly after I walked back to the Kingfisher airline to cancel our tickets the flight was cancelled due to low occupancy.

We waited 2 hours for a refund and almost missed the flight on Indigo Airlines - but all worked out and we arrived! We are both really tired and need showers.

Other than that it was a quiet day!