The Perils of Traveling

Some travel days are better than others. Case in point: For the return flight, I had booked a flight leaving at 6:58am, thinking I'd have an easier time getting home once I got to Georgia. Unfortunately, this meant I needed to be at the Casablanca airport at 5:00am, which meant I needed to leave the apartment by 4:30am, details which weren't fully considered on the booking date!

The driver, who was supposed to show at 4:30am never arrived (overslept?), so at 4:50am we're in the streets frantically trying to hunt down a taxi. Considering it's still dark, there were not many cars in the streets at all. So, we walked the three blocks to the main street, carrying our suitcases, and found a taxi with a man sleeping in the back. After pounding on the window, he woke up, and agreed to take us there.......for $55! Well, we got him down to about $35, which is still a rip-off, but, hey, desperate people do desperate things. He drove fast knowing we were late and we came very close to having a collision in the middle of an intersection, but both cars applied the brakes and we missed each other by centimeters. Whew, that was a close one!

After such a frantic morning, we finally got to the counter where we were told the flight to Paris had been delayed by four hours!! What?? No wonder there was such a long line at the opposite Air France counter. So, after standing in that line for 45 minutes, I was told that it would be 'no problem', they could get me to Paris later that day, then I could take the Paris-Atlanta flight the follownig day. The following day?? NOOOOOO. At that point, I was so exasperated, I politely demanded to know all the alternatives. Luckily, the agent was able to get me on a Royal Air Maroc flight later that morning to JFK, then I could connect to ATL. Yea!

The Royal Air Maroc (RAM) wasn't as nice as Air France, but, hey, beggars aren't choosy. I would have been happy in a cargo plane at that point. Had an interesting conversation with the man sitting next to me, who was in Casa on business. He works in Distribution for the Marshalls chain. Marhsalls? There is a Marshalls in Casa? I wonder what their clothes are like there...

Upon landing in JFK, and rechecking my bags, I proceeded the long way to the connecting gate, where I missed the flight by literally 10 seconds. Damn security gate! But I was told that I had been on Standby only anyway, and wouldn't have gotten on, because they were so overbooked. Standby?? I thought the Air France agent had confirmed me all the way through to Atlanta. After being told that there was only one other flight to Atlanta (that left in 2.5 hours), I hurridly went over to the new gate, and put my name on the Standby list. After what seemed like an eternity, the flight opened for boarding, but my name was not on the cleared Standby list! Help!
After talking again with the gate agent, he somehow got me what had to be the very last seat on the plane. I thanked God, and realized that I had come very close to spending the night there at the airport.

At 2:00am, I was finally at home in my own bed.