I arrived safely in Arkansas, and then the adventure of the luggage began.

It started at the belt, waiting for the luggage to come out. The people on my plane waited 40 minutes until the luggage rack even started moving. I think that was a record for everyone waiting. 20 minutes later, my luggage still wasn't there.

So then, I proceeded to the US Airways counter, where they let us look in the back room for all of the luggage they had collected. When none of us saw our luggage, we waited in line to talk with an employee individually. For me, this took an hour. Part of the reason was the dear old man in front of me. Like many people over the weekend, he was coming from the north and arriving later than he planned. He was also keen for conversation, and enjoyed talking to those around him. After spending about 25 minutes trying to claim his luggage, he decided to take one more look at the luggage in the back that we had previously looked at. Of course, the luggage was back there, and the previous encounter a waste of time.

I walked up to the ticket counter at the same time as a man on my left, who had missed his flight. Apparently, he was chronically late, and the person helping me knew him by name. Already flustered by the previous man, she unleashed on this guy, telling him in the future, he better be on time, because they knew him to always be late so they had actually held the plane for him. She was so upset, in fact, she typed my phone number in wrong, which I discovered this morning when I checked the status of my luggage on the internet.

Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but 1) I am leaving the address I provided tomorrow and 2) this address does not appear on mapquest or any GPS locater, so people don't know how to get here. And so, I called US Airways...and waited on the phone for an hour and a half. The lady corrected my phone number, but didn't know anything else to tell me.

You'll be glad to know that my luggage arrived late tonight. The driver's truck had overheated, and he called. "Oh, thank goodness,  it says call for directions, and your phone number hasn't been working," was his greeting. 

But I must say, it could have been so much worse.