The Stranded Story

Well, here we are again. Jess and I are back in good old BV.

Now, some of you may have heard that we got stranded in Atlanta and that is true.

Here's the story:
Bright and early Friday morning Jess and I went to the Sea-Tac airport for our flight to Atlanta, which would then take us to Roanoke and then our beloved BV. Well, we had no trouble getting through security finding our plane and then boarding said plane.

We flew to Atlanta with no problem, though it was a little foggy when we arrived. Once in the Atlanta airport Jess and I headed to our connecting flight for Roanoke. On our way to the terminal we both received a text from our dad saying that our flight was delayed by 30 minutes. This seemed like a nice thing because we only had an hour to get to the connecting flight. So, instead of taking the train we walked to our flight.

Once we arrived at our gate we found that the Roanoke flight that was supposed to leave at noon that day had not left yet. The time that we arrived at our gate was approximately 2:30 PM, so the poor people on the other Roanoke flight had been delayed for more than two hours.

Well, we went to our gate and sat down for the "little wait" we were supposed to have till we would get on the plane. That "little wait" turned out to be 3 hours. Plus, during that "little wait" the other Roanoke flight was cancelled.

So, what happened was, the Roanoke airport had ZERO visibility and our pilot was waiting for either a go or no go from ground control at Roanoke. Well, we sat and prayed until finally they told us that it was a go. We got on the plane and started heading for Roanoke at approximately 5 PM.

Once on the plane, we relaxed and had quite a nice flight. Then, when we were coming close to landing the pilot came on the speaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to try and land in the Roanoke airport, but ground control says the visibility is very low. So, we will get down to about 600 feet and if the visibility is not good enough than we will fly back to Atlanta."

My heart sank.

Did he really just say that?

So, as we started to fly down, I was praying like no other.

We got down to the 600 feet and there wasn't enough visibility and we turned around and headed back for Atlanta.

It was the worst.

The plane re-arrived safely in Atlanta at 8 PM. Jess and I immediately pulled out our cell phones when we got into the airport and called our parents. Our dad, called the flight company and rebooked us on a flight… On Sunday.

Two days from when I wanted to get back to BV.

The next process of happenings occurred very quickly. Our dad found us a hotel room for the two nights and we went to find our luggage.

So, Saturday morning Jess and I got our luggage, but I only received one of my two bags. The other bag was already put on another flight and went to Roanoke. Ugh.

Plus, on Saturday morning the weather was awful! There were tornado warnings around very close to Atlanta. Fun.

Anyway, Jess and I had a fun experience of getting together with one of our elementary school teachers and her husband for dinner in Atlanta on Saturday. It was really nice to see her and we really loved getting to see the city.

On Sunday Jess and I checked out of our hotel and went back to the airport. At the Atlanta airport we saw Bill Cosby, which was pretty cool.

So, we got on our flight to Roanoke and landed safe and sound.

All I can say is, that was a very unexpected and uninvited adventure. But, I'm glad that Jess and I were able to get another flight and that we are safe home in BV.