Hello! My sister, Kristen, and I spent an amazing weekend in New Orleans for our cousin’s wedding. It has been a very long time since either of us have traveled by plane and we were both pretty nervous. Our flight from Cleveland to New Orleans went without a hitch and it was so exciting to be greeted by the warm weather when we landed as we reveled in our success. As our weekend went by, we were two gals on the go and were enjoying our sister’s trip so much… Until it all came to a crashing halt on Sunday afternoon:

On Sunday night we were supposed to take a late flight back home. It was going to be rough as the plane took off at nine twenty to go to Orlando. We then would have to spend a five hour layover there until we could go back to Cleveland. It was okay, though, because we were so ready to go home! At around four in the afternoon, I got a notification that our flight would be delayed. While this was a buzzkill, we were still going to leave that night so it was all good. We decided to go grab a coffee and sit outside and read for a while to kill time before we needed to be back at the airport. An hour later, a notification came that literally felt like a punch to the gut – our flight had been cancelled.

In this moment, all I wanted to do was throw an adult temper tantrum lol. We were absolutely exhausted and the rug had been completely pulled out from under us. Rather than cry as much as I wanted to, we handled our business and I am so proud of us. After some deep breaths, I gave us each a task. Kristen was going to find a cheap hotel in the area that we could stay for the night and I would find us a flight home. With every passing second trying to find a flight back to Cleveland, my heart sank further and further. The cheapest tickets were roughly six hundred dollars. Can you say ouch?! Then, I had a brain blast…

What if we flew into the Akron Canton airport instead? I altered my search and blessedly found a semi affordable option that would get us home. In fact, flying into Akron Canton was even better as it was closer to both of our houses. With that, we gathered our luggage and made the mile trek to our new hotel with suitcases in tow. It was honestly the longest mile of our lives and when we finally got to our hotel room, we sunk into the bed and it felt like laying on a cloud! Surely, after all of this we would have a good night’s sleep – right?

WRONG! We were so stressed out about the flight home due to the TSA strikes that we couldn’t sleep a wink. Could you imagine missing the plane due to the long lines and bag checks after already changing plans once? We sure couldn’t! We arrived at the New Orleans airport with over three hours to spare and we didn’t even need it. Everything was running as smooth as silk and by eight forty-five we were in the air to get to our layover in Raleigh, North Carolina. We anticipated a two hour wait to get back to Akron until we weren’t. The delays just kept coming and coming. It. Was. Awful.

We spent a solid six hours at the Raleigh airport waiting for our plane. Six hours filled with dread that our flight would be cancelled and we would have to rinse and repeat the same situation. During this time, we had lunch, finished our books, and watched some TV on my phone. And, finally, the plane we were waiting on from Florida landed. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard! The wait was grueling but at least we were going home. #blessed

The flight back to Akron took around an hour and I have never been so happy to be in the A-K-Rowdy. We landed in New Orleans to sunshine and returned home to snow and that was more than okay with both of us. After all of that, we had finally made it. There really is no place like home!

Have you ever had a rough travel experience like ours? What is your favorite airline to fly on? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah