The return trip from php[world] 2015 was worse than the trip there. During the final keynote I got a message from the airline that my flight (which wasn't supposed to leave until 7:30) was delayed by 40 minutes. That wouldn't be a big deal, but I had a connecting flight that was supposed to leave just 10 minutes after the first flight was now expected to land. I was going to see what I could do about it after lunch.

I went to lunch at Smash Burger and sat down with a couple of the PHP Architect guys (sorry...I don't remember your names). About half way through I started choking on my sandwich. I had to hastily excuse myself (twice) before leaving to my room. Sorry guys, I didn't expect that to happen.

Anyway, I finally checked out and walked to the Metro station with Vesna Kovach. We road to Rosslyn together and had a fun, non-PHP conversation. She stayed on Silver Line heading for the National Mall and I got off to take the Blue Line to Reagan National. That train was packed. It got a little better as we got closer to the airport, but not much.

After I got to the airport, I made a couple wrong turns but finally got to where I needed to be. I checked with the airline and was assured I'd be able to catch my connecting flight. But then, 30 minutes later, they announced that the connecting flight wasn't going to be held because of the weather. So I got put on a 7:40 AM flight out of Chicago Midway. Meaning I wrote most of this in a hotel room in Chicago.

The next day was...interesting. On the way to the airport at 5:45 I got a text from the airline. The flight was canceled. So I was set up on the 5:30 p.m. flight with a standby on the 11:40 a.m. flight. As I watched the board, most flights were canceled. The 11:40 flight was canceled. The 1:30 flight canceled. The 3:30 flight was canceled. I was getting nervous. So I booked another room (the last one at that hotel, by the way). And finally, it stopped snowing. They cleared the runway. The announced the plane was on the ground. So I canceled my room (with no penalty). I got on the plane. And we left! Forty minutes late, but we left! And I got home late that night. Whew.

By the way, I was stuck in Chicago due to record snowfall. There was 5.8" of snow measured near Midway. And 11.2" at O'Hare. Glad I wasn't there. ☺