Worst Trip Yet?!?

I think I have reached a new low of travel to DC. So far this trip has actually been worse than the Breast Feeding fiasco.
I will start with my flight into DC. I left on an earlier flight on Sunday so that I could get in town and do a little settling in. The expected ETA was 2:15ish. We were on approach when the pilot decided to do a little circling around. Then we are informed that we are going to have to be diverted to Richmond, VA so that we can refuel. Turns out there is a "small" storm in the DC area closing down all the airports.

• Fast-forward 2.5 hours we get "well folks, the fuel truck is on its way. You may have noticed the storm has passed by here and gone off to the east. As soon as we get the fuel, we'll be on our way." (At some point we were served a granola bar and a glass of water.)


• Fast-forward 45 minutes we get "well folks, this is a small airport and there were a lot of planes diverted here, if we can't get off the ground in 30 minutes then we'll have to go to the gate. You'll have the opportunity to get off the plane, but please stay in the gate area as we will take off as soon as we get the okay."


• Fast-forward 20 minutes "Please turn off all electronics and put away tray tables."


• Fast-forward 30 minutes "Well folks, we didn't make our window so we are going to be pulling into the gate...."


• Fast-forward 30 minutes "Please turn off all electronics..."


• Woo Hoo!! We are back in the air.


• Fast-forward 45 minutes "Welcome to Regan National Airport. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to get to our gate for a while. Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts on..."


• Fast-forard 60 minutes later "Well folks, a gate have finally come availble...."


• 9:30 PM - I'm about to bitch-slap the guy in my row who has decided to be a gentleman and let the people in the row behind us get off the plane before us... Um, buddy, get the hell outta my way....


• 10:15 PM - Get to my hotel.... Low room. On the street. Get to hear traffic noise.. Woo and Hoo....

So, if that weren'it enough to represent a really bad trip, today I'm sitting in the office on a conference call and if feels like a big truck just drove by. Gee, that is a little odd we're on the 9th floor... Then, shakey-shakey-shake...5.9 earthquake. I didn't experience this big of an earthquake the entire time I lived in San Francisco!!

Some of the people completely freaked out in the building and then we were all evacuated. I went ahead and grabbed my stuff and my managers' stuff and headed down the 9 flights of stairs. We got yelled out because we weren't at the "designated meeting area". It was then decided to chuck in the towel and everybody, who could headed to their respective abodes. Luckily for me my hotel is a short 1.5 mile walk, so I headed out dodging the crowds from all the other evacuated buildings. Once I finally made it back to the hotel, it turns out that I can't get into my room, not because of the quake, but because of the maid. So, I headed down to the bar and decided to have a couple of nice glasses of Dr. L. Reisling....yum!! (The wine has been the highlight of the trip thus far.)

So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next two days will be uneventful, although I'm NOT holding my breath. And I can only hope that Hurricane Irene holds off until after I take off Thursday evening.... I'll keep you all posted!!