Gridlock Guy: Recent travel crisis bred desperation

Many industries and consumers felt the wave of the IT crisis on Friday, July 19th. Arguably, the largest fallout radiated through the airline industry - Atlanta’s Delta Airlines, in particular. With droves of flights getting delayed or canceled, the backlog flowed downstream to other days and flights. Delta’s crew tracking software was also a mess, so the problem snowballed. As thousands of passengers ended up stranded in Hartsfield-Jackson, among other airports, anger, fatigue, and delirium set in. And so did desperation.

All of those ingredients, for me, almost bred reckless hypocrisy.

While on a trip with my Decatur City Church high schoolers in Daytona, I got asked to join my NASCAR announcing radio friends to help fill-in and call the June 21st Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I booked a Friday night flight and arrived at my Chamblee condo about two hours before that scheduled flight.

By that night, the flight had been delayed until midnight, but was still set. I was relieved I did not have to rush, but then the flight got pushed to 1:30 a.m. Saturday. When Delta did not cancel it, I left for the airport on MARTA and got through the long line at the Main Checkpoint. Just after midnight, I arrived in Terminal A to see my flight canceled on the screens dotted with that red bad news for so many other flights.

I had a choice to make and I almost made a stupid one.

My call time for the Saturday Xfinity Series race in Indianapolis was 11:30 a.m. ET. I needed an hour to return home on MARTA. If I left my house by 2 a.m., I could technically make the race broadcast on time - barely. I had been awake and highly engaged since 5 a.m. Friday.

This space has seen me go off many times on the idea of drowsy driving wrongfully being somewhat acceptable. I recently noted how we make light of it during the time change in March , among many other times, where holiday travel can beget such behavior. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

But I was special and had a job to do - and did not want to let people down in this first-in-my-lifetime opportunity to broadcast from Indy. I shuddered with dread and fatigue.

Thankfully, my sweet, wise wife, Momo, was six hours ahead of me in Albania and awake. I posed the dilemma to her and boldly proclaimed the heroic feat I was about to execute.

She rightfully corrected me. Thank God I listened.

I then alerted my radio crew that I would miss the race Saturday, as I would drive to Indy all day long. I grabbed a few hours of my sleep at home and hit the road in much better condition than I would have in plan A. I arrived alive and had a good broadcast on Sunday. In fact, all of my co-workers completely understood and applauded the decision.

The same syndrome befell me that infects so many others in urgent need to push through to a destination. If we aren’t sleep-deprived, we may drive 100 mph in the rain or aggressively cut off someone to not miss a turn. We may be expecting an important text from an employer or our crush and think we have to answer it behind the wheel, instead of when we stop.

My cousin, Chris, recently stayed with us and we talked about priorities in life. He owns a business and has worked for years to refine his leadership and routines. I was explaining my frustration to him and he told me that when we are too concerned with urgent matters, we do not do the important ones.

Isn’t that the truth?

Prioritizing the destination or the near deadline over the recklessness and hypocrisy of getting there is certainly an example of how weary, anxious travelers like me can make bad mistakes.

Some sojourners from the recent technological meltdown are just now arriving where they wanted to. There likely were more than a few that rented cars and drove on low mental fuel to finish the job. Hopefully they made their endpoints safely.

Stress - especially in unexpected crises like this one - breeds desperation. Desperation, for me, almost bred hypocrisy. Thankfully, I came to my senses just in time.

Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. Download the Triple Team Traffic Alerts App to hear reports from the WSB Traffic Team automatically when you drive near trouble spots. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com .