SERIOUSLY though (ahem) I can sympathize. I was at the Dallas concert. After driving there from Austin, and killing about six hours in the adjacent Dealey Plaza area staring at museum exhibits, we nearly missed the show when torrential rain, flash floods, and tornado warnings caused it to take more than an hour to go the one block to the arena. In the end, I'm not sure quite how we got there as we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and couldn't really tell where we were going by the time we found the garage. It was a good show, but not your *only* show. Still, I was quite upset as 7:30 passed and terrified that the huge $$$$ I'd outlaid in tickets would go to waste, so I am really impressed by your character for not ditching the van full of pregnant women and gunning it from that airport. :-) You're a good soul. Christopher --- Maggie White <maggie3661@yahoo.com> wrote:
Suffice to say, yesterday was one of the worst days of my life.
To make a very very long story short....
I missed the first Dallas show completely (I had 11th row floor on Sting's side) but if there is such a thing as karma, I'm in OK shape.
My flight from CA to Dallas was diverted to Abeline TX because of the horrible weather over DFW. I was supposed to get in to DFW at 2:20 - plenty of time to hang out and then go to the show.
After many many many delays, they finally told us all flights to DFW were canceled and they would bus us to Dallas or rent hotel rooms in Abeline for us. This was about 5 p.m. I knew that option would NEVER get me to Dallas on time. I rented the last vehicle available - a 12 passenger van. Since I was headed to Dallas with plenty of room, I offered to drive anyone who needed to get to Dal faster. I immediately had more people than I had room for (several large flights had been diverted to Abeline) including a family with two small kids and a baby. They didn't have enough formula for the baby to last into the night and certainly not the next day.
But we hadn't counted on the luggage.....I had already had someone get my carry on off the plane. But we had to wait and wait for everyone else's luggage. If I had left right then, ans said "Sorry, see ya later" I probably could have gotten to the concert just in time for the Police. But I'd already promised a ride to 10 people, including the family with the baby, and I knew they need to get to Dallas and I was the quickest option.
The trip from Abeline to Dal was crazy. Pouring rain and low visibility for most of the time, dark for half and me driving a huge van filled with strangers. Talk about an overwhelming sense of responsibility!! If I'd crashed......well, we didn't, so that's something to be grateful for. The drive was MUCH longer than in looked on the map. We got into Dallas at 10 p.m. Then I had to drop everyone off at the airport, find my way out of the airport and to the venue. I got lost, had a meltdown in front of a clerk at a mini mart (I HAD been up since 3:30 a.m. that day) and finally decided I wasn't going to even try for the venue. It was 10:30 p.m. and I had no idea where I was. It took me another hour to find the place to return the rental car (the other airport in town) and finally my brother and his wife (who had been at the show and liked it) picked me up. My horrible day ended at 11:30 p.m.
As I re-read this, it doesn't sound that bad. But I've simplified for the sake of time and space. It really was one frustration after another. At some point, I think it was about 8:30 and we were still 80 something miles from Dallas, I was resigned to missing the show from the 11th row and eating the $250+ for the ticket. That wasn't what frustrated me. What's done is done. You can't control the weather. The woman next to me on the plane missed her grandson's first birthday. Another guy missed his flight to vacation in Cancun. Many people missed connecting flights to home or business meetings. We were all in the same boat.
What frustrated me was the getting lost more than twice (OK - Texas highway signs SUCK, can I just say that!!) and the endless driving that finally made me break into tears. Let's hope today, and tonight's concert, are better.
I did the right thing by getting people home and to their business commitments. Some things are more important than concerts, even the Police.
Maggie Still (somewhat) smiling in TX
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