Traveling in the Snowstorm

Well, I am done with my work in South Dakota for now (I will most likely return in the future for the “real” data collection as this was just pilot work). Unfortunately, my return has coincided with the snowstorm that is just pummeling the crap out of the Midwest and Northeast (I heard Boston could get as much as two feet of snow).

Sioux Falls was scheduled to get some bad freezing rain and sleet out of the deal which would have added to my problems greatly… heck, my original flight out was cancelled the day before in a pre-emptive strike. However, nothing really materialized, so I was a little optimist about getting home.

That optimism was squashed upon getting to the airport. My new Chicago flight was delayed by four hours due to high winds and snowfall in Chicago. As I write this (I am currently on said flight) I have no idea what is going to happen as far as connecting to Raleigh. My guess is that there have been a couple of RDU flights cancelled due to the limitations on the runways in Chicago, and the remaining flights have already been booked up full from the passengers on cancelled flights. In other words, I might be staying at a hotel in Chicago tonight. At least I should be able to find some healthy food (more on that in a little bit).

Anyways, I wanted to end with a note that the good people of Sioux Falls (both passengers and workers) have been able to retain a bit of humor about all this… I mean after all, what can anyone do about the weather? This good humor was embodied when the guy working the gate for United got on the PA system for what seemed like the 20th time and said:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some good new…

A pause followed as the passengers at the gate held their breath. He then continued:

I just saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico!

He then announced that we were in fact about to board, but everyone thought that was pretty funny (including me). Kudos to him for doing what he could in order to help make this messed-up day of travel a little more bearable.

Update: I am posting this from Holiday Inn in Chicago, so as you can see that my suspicions proved correct.