All good things must come to an end, including my weekend in Pennsylvania. All of us who had stayed at the hotel gathered on the patio to enjoy the continental breakfast together. The bride and groom also stopped by to eat with us and see us off.

A. gave me a ride to the airport, though once I got to the gate I discovered that I'd left my cell phone in her car. I think it fell out of my bag. She'll be mailing to me, bless her heart.

Harrisburg to Detroit was uneventful and pleasant. I was a little worried about the bouquet and airport security, because there are stickpins holding it together, but they said it was ok. In fact, the whole day I got smiles and compliments because of the flowers. Once again, I had a seat by the window, over the wing, although this time I had a seat mate. She read, I stared out the window. We disembarked at the C concourse, and I had to walk through a different section of the airport from the last time. The tunnel between the concourses was amazing. Colored lights drifted across the walls in changing shapes and patterns. Rather relaxing and impressing. I took some touristy pictures of it, which I will post if they turn out.

When I got to the A concourse, I found that my original departure gate (A11) was being moved to a new gate (A19). I headed to the new gate and settled in to wait. Then they announced that the flight was overbooked, and that they needed several volunteers to get bumped. They assured us that there was another flight to O'Hare leaving 5 minutes later, and that we could definitely have seats on that. I decided to go for it, and was given a $300 travel voucher with Northwest for my trouble. Score!

I headed to my new new gate (A21) and settled in once more. Just as the final boarding was called for my old flight, they announced that my new flight had mechanics on board the plane to deal with a problem with the pressurization system, and the estimated delay was about a half hour. I was a little bummed, but not terribly worried, since I didn't have a connection to make. Then I heard my name being called back at A19, along with several other passengers.

I got to the counter, where they took my new boarding pass for the delayed flight, tore it up and gave me a pass for my original flight. I got to keep the voucher. Bonus!

From O'Hare, I was catching a bus to Madison. Let me just say that if I can avoid O'Hare in the future, I will. What a ghastly place, especially after the classy airports to which I had just been. I was certainlu glad to be out of there.

The bus ride home gave me a chance to nap, since I no longer had my nose against the window the whole time. And now here I am, back home and thinking about my next trip. (I'm pondering getting to in Minneapolis in November, especially if I can find anyone to go with.)