I missed my flight.  I just missed my flight.  It’s a Southwest flight though, so, as they always do, they’re working hard to fix my mistake and get me to Ohio before my gig this evening.

I’m a professional traveler.  I know how long it takes me to get from my driveway to the security line at any time on any day. I know which cities are leaving out of what gates in the terminal and how long it takes to reach them.  There’s chart of this kind of data in my brain – it’s color coded and bar graphed.  So why did I miss my flight?

I left my house this morning in just enough time to make my flight.  If I made no mistakes along the way.

Then, I made a mistake.

On the parking shuttle headed to the terminal, I realized I’d left my wallet in my car.  My wallet is the home of my license and credit card, both of which I sorta need to fly around the country and rent cars and whatnot.  So I rode the shuttle to the terminal, waited while vacationers with lots of car seats and kiddos stumbled off the bus, and then I rode the bus to the arrivals level to pick up folks who just landed in our fair city.  Then we all rode together to the parking lot.  It took half an hour.

(Update: The seven foot super model in the Southwest shirt (Where do they find these people?) just booked me on a later flight that’ll be getting me to the gig an hour later than sound check was supposed to be.  I’m praying for no traffic and a speedy and very talented sound man.)

After retrieving my wallet, I rode back to the terminal again. The Southwest line was quick as always.  And Andy O was in line with me and made me laugh and that brought my stress level down quite a bit.  (He’s bringing me a cheap t-shirt from the Salvation Army conference he’s playing this weekend.  I told him I don’t think it’s that kind of a conference but…) I used the Northworst security gate instead of the packed Southwest security gate (a little trick for all you Nashville flyers), and I sprinted from security to my gate: C25, the farthest gate in the entire airport (boot camp has practical applications, it turns out).

But Southwest has this ten minute rule.  Yes, I’m a frequent flyer.  Yes, I forsake all other airlines for Southwest. But the ten minute rule clearly states that if you aren’t at your gate ten minutes before the plane leaves – regardless of race, religion, or how much you heart Southwest – they will leave your butt and give your seat to someone possibly less loyal but certainly less tardy.

I have mixed feelings then.  On the one hand I missed my flight and that means plans have to be changed, stresses arise, apologies have to be made, more running and worrying will ensue. Yet I like egalitarianism and sticking to the rules.  Even when the rule sticks it to me.  Torn.  Grace or justice?  Very torn.  And getting some work done for the next couple hours.

Series: Stories From The Road