Day 23/24: Touchdown Rio.. With some hiccups..

Warning: this is a long write up be ready to be entertained with some gut wrenching events.

All was going well from Ottawa to Philly to top it off I got a free lunch. Philly cheesesteak from a nice lady (Tina). It was the best cheesesteak sandwich of life. She was heading to boston to see her mom. She was counting her last days suffering from cancer.

While waiting I received an alert that my flight to Baltimore is delayed. It was delayed such that it would give me only 30 mins to catch my flight to Charlotte. Another frequent flyer I helped with fixing his phone charger said that I wont make it. Like a man on a mission I walked to customer service and they put me on a standby for an earlier flight. Awesome right? Nope! while waiting at my new flight, it got cancelled because of a storm. I went back to customer service just to find that the whole airport was lined up there to make changes. So I turned back and tried my luck at my initial delayed flight and when I got there it was boarding!!!! There were three other people on standby. At this point I was willing to give cash to anyone who let's me get on! Luckily we all got on board!!!
While on the flight the stewardess said the following to someone who was giving her a hard time to put her baggage in the overhead bin.
"Your bottle will not move it should be fine. Life is too short it's not going anywhere!!" It was awesome got some chuckles for sure. Also, next to me a guy was trying to make his connecting flight but he was talking to the customer service so I assisted in hiding his phone with my headphones while the plane was preparing for take off. Due to all the cancellations he was trying to meet his step daughter :)
The plan was as soon as I arrive in Baltimore I was getting on the next flight out to Charlotte. That was my goal as any flight can be easily delayed in this country.
So! I arrived in Baltimore and I check the status of my flight 1717 it's CANCELLED!!!! I wait in a long line and hearing everything its cancelled except one flight that has two of it's tires being replaced and the flight crew was just waiting to leave. I use some mad skills to ask the nice lady to get me on that flight. I told her if she gets me on it, I will give her one of my FIFA tickets (sorry Shelly!) And come to Brasilia with me to the World Cup! It worked! She didn't take it anyway and seemed to have forgotten the deal in all of the excitement. Every flight after the flight I was assigned to (1767) was being cancelled, including my original flight. The flight was supposed to leave at 3:40pm was now leaving at 6:30pm. I have to be in Charlotte for a 10:40pm flight to rio. Otherwise I miss two of the games! Everything coming in and out of Charlotte was grounded. When they announced boarding for my new flight the whole gate cheered including me. Everyone I spoke to was stuck and I was just getting this nauseous feeling that I will be stuck till tomorrow and will miss both the matches in rio and Brasilia. We finally boarded and literally while we are all ready to go the pilot announces a 45 minute delay and you hear everyone cursing the pilot. I was getting worried and the nauseous feeling was back. Literally after 5 minutes of waiting he announces we have been cleared to leave!!! Everyone cheered! We left Baltimore finally at 7:20 which is my original take off time for the flight that was cancelled. In other words everything was exactly on schedule! Dad was definitely up there making sure I make that flight to Rio :)
Landing in Charlotte was a massive thing! Every flight from Baltimore was pretty much cancelled coming into Charlotte. The airport is massive here and once I got to my gate to meet Asif and Shelly all was good to find out that our flight to rio was on time. After all that I still have no idea how I made it to Charlotte. All along the way I met some people who really helped me getting on some of these flights. A massive thank you!!