Philadelphia, PA (USA)

Awoke earlier than I wanted to (0715) and immediately wished I had moved my flight up from the late afternoon... Took care of some work-related paperwork for a few hours and double checked by bag a few times before heading over to the airport (early). It really was a good thing, too, since I nearly missed my flight after a series of errors and bad-luck. First, I got bad parking instructions from the attendant and ended up waiting for 15 minutes in the wrong area (no shuttles) - after I realized this it took a little longer for one to find me and drive me to the terminal. This led to the next problem: the US Air website reported the terminal and gate FOR PHILADELPHIA instead of the one for DFW. Of course, I didn't know this until I was already out of the shuttle and in the AMERICAN ticket area. None of this might not have been a big deal at another airport - but today it was, since US Air is in a completely different terminal at DFW and only has ticket counters there. So, I got to experiment with the Terminal Link service (bus that takes you between terminals on the outside of security. It worked out OK but I was rapidly using all of the extra time I originally had. Of course the ticket lines and TSA lines were longer than normal and I had to walk a bit longer to get to the gate - just about when they began boarding my zone. I guess it wasn't too bad (I never had to run anywhere) but I did start to get a little concerned... Flight was fine - we got to Philadelphia early. Unfortunately, the aircraft had to wait to cross some runways for a LONG time. End result: got to the rental car office about an hour later than planned (2030). Enterprise ended up saving the day, though, and I was out of their quickly (with an upgrade to a Dodge Charger with Sirius/XM radio!). The best part was that now there was NO traffic on the Interstate. It took about 45 minutes to get to Willow Grove and I made it to the checkin before they closed for the night (what a relief). Went out afterwards and picked up some supplies for tomorrow's trip - which moved from 0700 brief to 0500 brief while I was flying today. Hope I get some sleep!!