Steve's Travel Blog: It Must Be The Holiday Season

Chaos perfectly describes my travel back from Cleveland to Oklahoma City. I have no regrets on the town but plenty of questions about Cleveland-Hopkins Airport.

The cab driver who took me and picked me up from Cavaliers practice offered to take me to the airport the next day. I understand the taxi business is tough right now with other transportation options out there. I told him my flight left at 6:15 a.m., he suggested I leave the hotel at 4:30, add a 10-15 minute ride and get there with time to spare. I'm going to assume my driver is not an expert traveler by air out of Cleveland.

We rolled up to the airport, the cab driver said "Wow look at all the people here at five in the morning." Gulp! 

I went with the curb-side checkin to speed up the process (didn't work). For some reason my Pre-TSA was off by one number on this trip so I was denied at SW ticket counter after I showed proof that I'm Pre-TSA.

Construction was taking place inside and outside the ticket counter. Swarms of people packed in a tight space looking for directions to their airline counter, TSA and Pre-TSA, mass confusion and way too much frustration for a Friday.

I realized quickly that I would not make my flight. It took over an hour to get through TSA after a long and windy path through construction zones. 

Southwest is real good on re-routing you on missed flights. I pretty much walked onto a flight to Las Vegas to help get me home in time to pick up my wife's birthday present.

When I located my gate in Vegas for OKC I was asked by an OKC bound traveler, "What are you doing in Vegas? We're you in Cleveland last night?  I replied Yes, it's a long story. So I got home three hours later then expected and raced over to pick up my wife's gift.  The day started bad and finished great.