"never-ending happiness": THE Trip Home!

This is just some of the paperwork we collected on the way home!

We got up at 4 AM Sunday to catch our rescheduled trip home. I checked Delta to be sure both legs were flying before going to the airport. Woke poor Steven up with less than 4 hours of sleep to take us. We didn't eat anything as it was early and we figured we could eat in Detroit as we arrived about 7:30. We checked the boards and found our gate to Rochester. After a long walk we were told at the gate the flight was canceled and go to rebooking. When we got there the line was very long. An agent told us to rescan our boarding passes as new flights would probably be available. I did that 4 times in the hour or so we stood in line. The first three were the same canceled flight, the fourth scheduled us to leave the next day about 4PM to Chicago, Minneapolis, Rochester arriving after 10PM Monday. At this point the agent announced if you didn't want to wait in line there were phones to use. No one ahead of us took up his offer so I did. All that accomplished was to put us on the direct flight to Rochester Monday morning. I took it and we went to baggage claim to request our luggage before finding a hotel. We were told it would take an hour to get our baggage. I went up to ticketing to print out our boarding passes for Monday. The kiosk suggested there were 4 flights to Minneapolis we could request so I did and each one rejected me. So I called reservations again and asked to be put on a flight to Minneapolis and was told they could not get us to Rochester would we like to go to LaCrosse. I asked for Mason City and we got booked for that flight. I went back to baggage claim to tell them we needed our bags quickly so we could get on the flight. I was told one was already on aboard a flight to Minneapolis and the other waiting for a Chicago flight. I told them our new flight schedule and they said to wait for the bag as it would be up shortly. After 1-1/2 hours waiting we needed to get in line for boarding passes as the kiosk would not give them to us. The line was so long it did not look good. The three Delta agents telling us to use the kiosks would not listen to anyone about them not working and the need to get ahead of people with later flights. 15 minutes before our flight was to leave one of these Delta agents asked if anyone need to move up to make their flight, I said yes as our flight leaves in 15 minutes to which he said too bad it is too late. (We later found out that flight did not leave for another hours so we could have made it if he had moved us to the front.) We finally made it to an agent 2 hours later and of course missed any connections to Mason City. I explained all that had happened and said my wife is sick to which Eileen protested (she is at the Doctor as I write this). The agent tried to find a flight and finally picked up the phone and turned away from us. The next thing I hear is the agent said she hung up on me. Then she said maybe she will call back. We waited for several minutes and then she said Oh here comes the supervisor. He went to work on the terminal for some time and Eileen said I have to go sit down. We had now been standing over 3 hours. After at least 1/2 hour he came up with a plan to put us on standby to Minneapolis and then seats on a late flight to Rochester in case we didn't get the standby. He then said if we make the standby we should then check to see if we could get the earlier flight to Rochester which had seats. He left and the agent went to work printing out boarding passes and flight coupons. She then said I will give you the same for both Rochester flights in case you make it. At this point the flight was leaving in less then 30 minutes and we still had to go though security. We took off for the gate which besides security required a train and a long walk. We made it just as they were calling up standbys. I gave the agent my standby and said the supervisor told me to tell you this is a misconnected ticket. She gave me a frustrated look and said you are on my list of standbys. She called a few more and I was't sure we would make it but we did. We pushed away from the gate and the plane would not start. An hour later the plane started with mechanics help. Then it was deicing to which the pilot announced good news we are next in line but they had to go refill the trucks. An hour later we were ready to go. We are now very close to missing the connection to Rochester. I asked the flight attendant if we could have a cart at the gate to which Eileen said she didn't need a cart. When we arrived in Minneapolis there was hope we would make the connection then the pilot said our gate is occupied so we have to wait. Then when we got to another gate the pilot said we now have to wait to have the jet way dug out. We finally got off and I waived down a cart and asked if he could take us to our gate on the opposite side of the terminal. We made it time and then the pilot said we have to wait for the baggage handler as there is only one available. Then he announced we had to wait for a vehicle to push us back because the weather had put many out of commission. We made it to Rochester just as Amanda arrived to pick us up. She took an hour (twice as long as usual due to road conditions). Our luggage did not make it so we headed home at 40 MPH and Amanda made us dinner of delicious pumpkin pancakes. This was our first food because we were always unable to get food due to all the time in lines and there was't any on the plane to buy. We had a total of one beverage the entire day. It was not a good day made worse by both of us being sick. We are very grateful to be home and to have gotten treatment from our doctors. Our luggage was found and was supposed to be delivered today but they called and said the transportation company will not deliver due to the road conditions - hopefully tomorrow.