Donivee's Drift: Flying Adventures

We start off on our journeys feeling confident that all will go smoothly. However, that is not always the case. Take my trip on June 20. The first 2 legs were long but on schedule.I took a red-eye to Vancouver and then after a 4 hour layover I headed to Chicago and my rendezvous with Buck. He was at my gate to meet me. We boarded our flight and on the runway, after sitting for a while, we learned we were number 19 in the take-off line. (See first picture. Not a great shot but it does show aircraft awaiting.) One factor in the delay was that VP Biden had arrived at O'Hare that day and the airport had been closed. After more waiting the pilot announced we were returning to the gate for more fuel and to allow us to get off and stretch our legs. We learned some flights had been sitting on the field for 3 hours.
In an hour or so we once again boarded our aircraft. We called Sara (again) who told us there was a terrible storm in Knoxville..lightening, thunder and wild wind. We pulled away from the gate and sat again. We could see black clouds and lightening in the distance. Then the pilot asked us to be sure our seat belts were tightly fastened because there was a tornado warning for O'Hare airfield. Things immediately got much worse. It was very dark, lightening was all around us and wind was buffeting our plane. A plane nearby was being blown towards us and large baggage containers were bouncing around the field. Wild, crazy and terrifying!!
After about 30 minutes things eased and we were told the plane had been hit by 87 mph winds and we had had a front row seat to a tornado. It took a while for ground personnel to get back onto the field and to clean things up so we could get back to the gate. Our flight was canceled as were many more from O'Hare that evening. None of the aircraft on the field when the tornado hit were allowed to fly until they had been carefully inspected.
There were no hotel rooms available in the area and no cars to rent either. Lucky for us we have Dee (Buck's sister's partner) not too far away. We called and begged shelter. (Buck had been there for 2 nights previously.) The taxi line was miles long, we persisted and finally were at Dee's safe and sound but worn to frazzles.
The only flight we could get the next day was the same one we had been on, departing at 4:50 pm. We had a relaxing visit with Dee and saw many trees and branches down in her area of Chicago.
The next afternoon we arrived at the airport in plenty of time only to learn we were delayed because our flight was missing a pilot and flight attendant. They showed up an hour or so later and at last we were bound for Knoxville. The flight attendant evidently was not happy about his assignment because he was very grumpy and surly. He was grumpy? We were some 26 hours late.

Driving around Sara and Rick's neighborhood we were saddened by the number of trees down. They had a large branch from their magnolia tree down. We have continued to see trees down wherever we have gone in Knoxville.