No Bayou for This Boy

I awoke at 3:15 (AM, just to be clear) and was on the road by 3:45 to drive through a massive "ground blizzard" to make my flight in time in Fargo.  For the uninitiated, a ground blizzard is a blizzard which is caused solely by the snow on the ground - snow isn't actually falling.  Depending on the wind speed and the amount and type of snow on the ground, these blizzards can be quite dangerous and lead to white-out conditions.

That was pretty much the case yesterday.  However, I had left ample time to make my flight, and my trip was a safe, albeit a slow one.

My check-in, even with a firearm, went smoothly, as did getting through security as our TSA staffing was ample.  Boarding went smoothly as well.  As we sat at the gate and deicing procedures started, the captain came on and told us we had an issue, needed a part in order to fly, and didn't have that part here.  It'd be flying up from Minneapolis and would be here in four hours.

My trip had four legs - FAR > MSP > ATL > JAN.  A four-hour delay was a killer.  While I'll write about it later, the upshot was that I couldn't get to Louisiana for our annual hunt until the following day.  That left me with basically a day and a half of hunting, thus I opted to pull the plug and cancel.

I had done the hard part, was in my seat and ready to go, and fate got me.  If the plane had been working, I'd be putting out decoys right now instead of writing this.  Also, I'd be enjoying some 40-degree temps instead of this nightmare:

More than all of that, I miss the opportunity to see my family.  However, I talked to Mrs. YDP last night, and we're working on what "plan B" looks like, and hopefully this boy will be in the bayou before too long.