We Were THAAAAT Close!

I've been around the world, mostly. By that I mean I've been halfway around he world and returned by the same route, so technically, I didn't go ALL the way around the world. Still, Mileage is mileage,and I'm counting it. I have not visited all five continents and probably won't. I saw March of the Penguins and Australia on DVD so I think I've got those two covered. My wanderlust has its limits.
I've learned never to check baggage...not because it now costs money on most flights but because it eliminates waiting around for the carousel to rotate slowly...in addition to encouraging overpacking. Still, there are some things about travel that make me cringe. In fact, the two most odious words to me are Chicago O'Hare, especially when used together like that (though, I cannot imagine using them both in the same sentence in any other context). Today, though, my trip through that airport was flawless, and it occurred to me that I might be in for that rarest of travel experience: a flawless flight from start to finish.
Today began with my finding a parking space three cars from he overhead awning at the airport: good because it was raining. I just knew the omens were in my favor when the ticketing agent handed us confirmed boarding passes for all our flights...despite not being able to print them off ahead of time as we normally do.
As we approached O'Hare, a deep-seated fear began to push its way forward and upward. I'd never gotten into or out of that place unscathed; today, though, went smoothly: in on time and out on time headed to Philly.
Uneventful to this point, we landed in Philadelphia with plenty of time tofind our gate which would be our port of entry for the final leg of our journey to Wilmington, North Carolina, where we intended to spend the next four days watching a basketball tournament.
I was only mildly upset when the gate agent indicated that our plane would be a few minutes late getting in, thus causing the first small delay for the day. When we were subsequently told that the delay would be another 4 minutes due to a seat problem on the plane, I began to fret a bit. Of course, this was the last leg, and we didn't have to be there at a certain time, but still...it had been perfect to this point.
The seat problem turned out to be such that the captain's seat had malfunctioned and couldn't be set in a position which would allow the pilot to see out the window...something of a detriment even though computers do a lot of the work; now, the delay had stretched into an hour and evinced thoughts of having to rent a car or hotel room...and try to travel on Thanksgiving day when not even truck stops served food!(Certainly, there would be nothing to compare with the deep-fried pickles we had this evening with our seafood!)
However, there was an extra plane just lying around so we were ushered on board and were a mere 90 minutes late arriving at our destination. My newly-purchased GPS got the rental car to the hotel, and I was left wondering how I would feel about the "perfect" trip.
Hopefully, I will find out on Sunday, but I am not betting on it.