"No Carry-On Liquids" is the LEAST of my Problems

I've done quite a bit of traveling in the past year. You'd think that by the number of flights I've taken, there would be at least a couple of glitch free rides...but you'd be wrong. I seem to not be able to take a simple getaway without some excitement along the way. Let me give you just a few examples of what flights have been like for me this past year.

• Last fall I had a lay-over in Milwaukee on a flight to Boston. After twiddling my thumbs for two hours waiting at the gate for my next flight to board, I looked up to see that the gate I was waiting at was actually a flight going to Memphis. By the time I figured out my gate had moved, I raced to the correct one...only to find my plane pulling away from the jetway. Which left me in Milwaukee for another four hours until I could get on the next flight to Boston. Lesson learned: Always check to make sure the gate has not changed from what is listed on your boarding pass.
  
• Last winter I flew into Newark, got in about midnight and picked up my one piece of checked luggage. I ignored a couple of calls from unfamiliar numbers that I got in the carride back from the airport since it was so late and had no idea who would be calling me at that time. When I got to where I was staying at about 1am, I opened up my luggage only to find that it WASN'T MINE! Yep, someone else had the exact same bag as mine, packed to the exact same fullness as mine...and I picked up that one instead of my own. The call on my cell phone was from the owner of the bag who saw mine going around the carousel and figured I had picked up his. It made for a fun second day of my trip returning the bag to the owner at his home, in a city I was unfamiliar with, and driving back to the airport to reclaim mine. Lesson learned: Always check the nametag on your luggage and put your cell phone on your luggage...it's a life saver!
  
• Last week, I had a lay-over in Atlanta on my way to Washington DC. I had made my connecting flight and I had only carry-on luggage (this was the night before the no liquids on carry-ons came into effect). What could go wrong? We were boarded the plane, sitting in the rain, and just about ready to take off, when suddenly there was a huge crash. The plane went black and shut-down. Lights out, air out, engine out. Struck by lightning. Struck by lightning! Delayed, delayed, delayed...made friends with randoms, ate a burrito...ate some ice cream, played games on my cell phone...read the TV guide...twice. I knew there was another flight taking off about three hours later that had only a few seats on it, which was starting to look pretty good since my plane wasn't leaving any time soon. So with a little wink to the old man behind the counter, I convinced him to get me booked on the other flight, which he finally did TWO minutes before they were going to close the gate. I made it! Not much of a lesson learned in this incident...more of a thank goodness my plane was still on the ground when it got struck by lightning!

Just a few of my travel tribulations of the past year. I've got more dating farther back...like six years ago when I had 20 minutes to make a connecting flight in Detroit between New Hampshire and Minneapolis and had to run from one end of the airport to the other with a severe hangover from the night before. Use your imagination...