An Inauspicious Beginning
Rain, flooding, hail and tornadoes can't keep Frank and I from embarking on our trip and after four gate changes and a several hour delay we finally made it to Montreal, the first stop on our trip.
After a gorgeous, sunny day in the seventies the skies turned dark in the early evening. At 5:30 the tornado sirens started going off while I was still at work. As everyone was evacuating to the basement I decided I just needed to head home otherwise I would risk not being able to pack and make my flight. Lucky for me that I did because it turns out that the people at work were down in the basement for over two hours which would have caused me some trouble getting to the airport. 
My drive home was slow with the pouring rain and by the time I got back to my house it was hailing even thought it was still warm. I finished up packing and Frank swung by my house to pick me up. Ann Arbor had flash flooding with about 4 inches of rain coming down in forty-five minutes. Tornadoes had touched down nearby and one had taken out a neighborhood in nearby Dexter.
Our drive to the airport was slow (we had to drive through some standing water that was a little nerve wracking) but we still got there about an hour and a half before our flight. When we dropped off our bags the gate agent said the flight was on time but we knew there was no way since the airport had been shut down for a while due to the storm and everything was backed up. About twenty minutes prior to our scheduled departure the flight finally showed up late and we ended up having a gate change every half hour or so. We had drinks and enjoyed watching some NCAA tournament basketball while we waited and finally took off at nearly one in the morning.
By the time we got to our hotel at nearly four in the morning we were exhausted but glad that we didn't have a tight connection to fly on to Europe that we would have missed. It was definitely a crazy beginning to our trip and hopefully things go a little smoother from here out.
Friday, March 16, 2012 at 10:49AM | Posted by Lisa | 2 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
Reader Comments (2)
Hope the rest of your trip goes smoother! Sounds like you made the best out of the situation though!
Looking forward to seeing photos from this trip!
Hilary- Our flight from Montreal ended up even more delayed and we only had a few hours in Paris instead of a full day. Things from Paris to Rome went smoothly and we are all set to make good use of the beautiful sunny day today.