Third verse, different from the first. We are not flying to Scotland.

We gave up. Headed home. No Scotland trip this week. There comes a time when you have to say, this trip just isn't meant to be.

Two days of travel got us — Fran Golden and me — from Cleveland to Newark, N.J. — that's about 500 miles — and back to Cleveland.
 
In two days, we were booked on five different United flights. Not one left on time. Delays from weather, mechanical difficulties, missing aircraft, missing a pilot, all contributed to an aborted trip.
 
We were headed to Edinburgh, Scotland, to board a ship, the Azamara Journey, for a cruise to Dublin. That ship sailed from Edinburgh on Saturday without us.
 
Our Thursday flight from Cleveland to Newark was delayed by weather, and we sat at the Cleveland airport for 5 hours, missing the United flight from Newark to Edinburgh, which too was delayed but not as delayed as our flight.

Thursday was tough, Friday was worse

So, we went home for the night, and tried again on Friday after United folks worked to find us another flight. Thursday had been tough. Friday was worse. Our flight to Newark again was delayed by several hours, but we had chosen an earlier flight so we would have plenty time to catch the Newark flight to Edinburgh at 9:55 p.m.
 
We had far more time than we expected, because the Friday night flight to Edinburgh at 9:55 p.m. never left, at least not until early afternoon on Saturday — way too late to meet a Saturday afternoon voyage on Azamara Journey.
 
United paid for a Newark hotel room Friday night, and booked us on a flight back to Cleveland Saturday morning. That fully-booked flight also was delayed for two hours, as a pilot was missing, held up by a late arriving flight into Newark.
 
Here's the kicker

The only part of us that made it to Edinburgh was our luggage, which apparently waited out the 15-hour flight delay in Newark and wound up in Edinburgh about midnight Saturday night — this despite our request to have the luggage return to Cleveland with us Saturday morning.
 
At the moment, United baggage folks are searching for two suitcases across the pond. Or perhaps they took another journey.