Poor Frank - Las Vegas All Over Again

I think you will agree with me.  He deserves a medal for this trip.  And maybe a raise!

He left on Wednesday for Tulsa for a one day production equipment training.  They said he would be in the field and in the machine shop and to bring a hard hat and steel toed boots.  First off, do you know how difficult it is to get this stuff through the airport security in the wake of the Boston Bombings?

So he gets to the Baton Rouge Airport about 2 hours ahead of time because of this, and f course he has problems.  They search him from head to toe, undo his overnight bag, with his toiletries and one change of clothes, steel toed boots and hard hat.  He ends up carrying his hard hat, which is pretty cumbersome.

The plane is delayed about 2 1/2 hours because of the explosions in Texas and the gasses that are in the area.  Seems like planes can fly though stuff, but what do I know.  The plane delays just long enough for the weather to deteriorate to a heaving mass of airplane and Frank.  He has terrible motion sickness and is sick on the plane.

In Tulsa he finds his luggage is missing.  With his steel toed boots.  And toothbrush.  And clean underwear.  And clothes that are not sweaty from being sick on the plane.  He is not happy.  And he feels really bad.  The luggage, it seems, was never checked in at Baton Rouge.  They have no clue if it even got on the plane, what plane it got on, or where it is.

He gets a taxi to the hotel, the driver is a maniac driver and he barely misses being sick again in the cab.  He calls me from the hotel sounding like death warmed over.  But he is on stable ground and can sleep commando (oh, nudes in bed, or making the bed, or doing dishes, yes)  and wash out at least his undies.  But no.  All night long the tornado sirens blare.  He barely gets any sleep.

The shop has to find him steel toes, and they are too big.  And the temps are going to drop to the 30s and he has no jacket.  Someone takes him to Walmart where he finds the only jacket left in the store, an XXL.  He is a definite medium!  But at least it is a jacket and he will be in the field.

He does the training.  Fine.  At 3:30 pm he gets an email from the Tulsa office saying that his overnight bag has just been delivered there.  He is in the field, with no vehicle and no way to get there.  So he finds someone to drive him to the office, and then to the airport for his 5 pm flight.  Where he finds his plane has been delayed for at least 2 hours.

He still has not changed clothes because he had to check his bag.  Besides he will be home by 9 and in a nice warm tub, right?  Not so fast, the night is not over yet!

His plane is delayed again, and set to leave at midnight.  There is not another flight out because of the Texas explosions and Boston explosions and the airlines are trying to catch up on flights.  At 1:30 his plane leaves, only to turn back at the half way mark because of bad storms in Baton Rouge.  The authorities would not let anyone leave the airport because of heightened security.

He spends the rest of the night/morning in the airport.  He called me about 8 am saying he was leaving Tulsa.  And hoped to be home today.    But he did not have any confidence that it would actually happen.  Of all the weeks to be traveling, this was the bad one to choose.

We travel all the time, and never have run into all these problems, let alone in one trip.  Poor guy.  He just wants to be home!