How do you miss a flight when you are in front of the gate??

Well, the first part of the trip isn't going so smoothly. It's like, no matter how much you plan, things just have a way to get screwed up. I've spent the better part of the trip so far on the phone with the travel insurance and hanging around in airports. I've found out that there isn't really a good alternative to get to George on the 13th to meet up with Juli, Kimmie, Courtney, and Aneka. The best option so far is to fly into Port Elizabeth and then hopefully get a bus down to George...but I wouldn't get to Oudtshoorn until about 1:30 AM. But I'd still be able to do the ostriches before making the drive down to Cape Town. But all the connections are really close in time...so I'm not sure I'd even make all of them...and then I'd be screwed.

So when I've been dealing with all of this in between flights, I'm having other issues. I met up with Aneka last night and stayed at Gregor's, a friend of a friend. They were a few hours late - no biggie - got myself a cell phone in the meantime at the airport. Well, this morning we were supposed to go to Livingstone in Zambia to meet up with Nicci & Cody for fun at Victoria Falls. We had a boarding passes and were at the gate. They told us the flight was delayed. We waited around, checking often to see if the shuttle came or if there was any line. Nothing. We kept waiting and waiting, and then we noticed they closed the flight!!! We missed the flight, eventhough we were standing out front of the gate. How the heck did that happen? No freakin' idea. Aneka was pretty pissed, not to mention myself. The next few hours I've been dealing with travel insurance again (which they said they aren't going to cover...BOO), and checking out other options to Livingstone. No overnight busses, and no other flights today. There's like 1 flight a day for all these airlines. Finally got a flight for tomorrow for like $250 (the lady felt sorry for me and somehow got me a better price) and we found a place next to the airport to stay the night (thanks Nicci & Code). Now it's too late to do anything over here, so pretty much the whole day is shot. This is day 2 in Jo-burg and I've done nothing. I also missed meeting up with Nicci & Code in Victoria Falls. Boo. Only get 1/2 day tomorrow to see Vic Falls before heading off to safari.

I'm hoping tomorrow's flight goes smoothly! I'm going to make sure I stand right next to the gate this time.