I had to do some unavoidable air travel during the week that Froze The South. My flights, naturally, had to go through Texas (which I have waxed affectionately about in the past), Arkansas (holy crap, it’s like every southern stereotype, good and bad, writ large), and North Carolina.

I made it as far as Arkansas before my flights got cancelled like a conservative speaker at a Berkley college. And…my flight was rescheduled for the same gate, same tytpe of plane, same departure time…but the next day. But, wait, there’s more….not only were the vast majority of hotels booked, but the one that was not booked solid was not sending an airport shuttle due to the road conditions. So…Refugee Status: Unlocked!

My only options at this point were to sleep on the floor of the airport until the next day. Not a new experience, I’ve done it before….but I haven’t had to do it in  quite a while. And, being a southern airport, it wasn’t really built with the idea of keeping heat in. (By the way, it was Bill And Hillary Clinton Airport, which meant there was a wall mural of America’s greatest political sycophant…and her husband.) So not only was it going to be an uncomfortable night of sleeping on a bench like a homeless person, it was going to be a cold one. (So, really, it was an aptly named airport…it was unremarkable, relied on name recognition rather than actual merit, was frigid, and made me want to go find a 22-year-old to amuse myself with.)

I travel with one bag. One. So everything I need has to fit in that one bag ’cause Zero ain’t paying for a checked bag. But Zero also realizes that stuff happens. And I’d thought there might be a good chance of having to spend the night in the airport. (And, no, the days of the airline putting you up in a hotel for a flight cancellation are long gone, baby.) So…I packed with an eye towards spending the night in the airport. First thing, and the one that really paid off, was the Kifaru Woobie. Warm enough for interior of the airport, and compact enough that I could scrunch it down to the size of a Nerf footbal and get it in my bag. That one paid off. Other items were a small ‘travel sized’ packet of Clorox disinfecting wipes carried in my toiletries kit along with a ‘travel size’ roll of TP. The TP is self-explanatory and if you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to use a public restroom then you know the disinfecting wipes are pretty self-explanatory as well. Also brought a small Platypus water bottle so I didn’t have to roam around looking for a water fountain. Already had a small EDC flashlight with me.

And, of course, a wad of cash and a deck of bank cards.

Wandering the airport it was interesting to see how other people managed the situation. It was fairly evenly divided into two camps (almost literally) – the folks who piled all their belongings in a corner, draped their coat over themselves, and tried to sleep….and the group who sat at the tables determined to just power through by staying awake. Crom help them.

Having wifi available was a big plus. A laptop and phone go a long way towards keeping a person entertained. So, finally, around 2am, I found a quiet corner, wrapped my backpack strap around my ankle, curled up under my woobie, used my coat for a pillow, and managed to steal a few hours of sleep. Not enough to keep me from being sleepy the next day, but enough for me to be functional and relatively sociable. (Because when asking the ticket agent to please help me GTFO of this place it would be good to be as pleasant and obsequious as possible.)

Moral of the story? It’s not impossible that you’re going to get stranded at the airport when you travel. When it happens you can usually money your way out of it with a hotel for the night. But nothing in life is certain, so, if you can, be prepared to have to camp out by the baggage carousel for a night.

Space in my bag was at a premium, but what I did have worked well. What I would have done differently is to have brought earplugs (a couple foam ones would have been fine), and possibly a small freeze dried entree…because even though the food services are closed, there is always someplace that has hot water for coffee.

So, there you go…a little learn-from-experience.