This is part of a series of posts chronicling our difficult journey to the 2014 edition of B-Fest, the annual bad movie festival at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

If you’re just joining I recommend reading the older posts first, so that you know how things got to this state. We’re now racing to BWI on a MARC commuter train, chasing the last Southwest flight to Chicago.

Jammed into a seat on a MARC bi-level surrounded by commuters isn’t the best way to purchase plane tickets, but sometimes life is shit. MARC delivered us to the BWI station a little before 6:00 PM, and we hopped the shuttle bus to the airport. Check-in and security went smoothly enough and after locating our gate we found a place to eat dinner while I booked a hotel in Chicago for the night. The flight would land at 9:25 and we’d be at the hotel before 11.

Yeah, not today. Not with our luck. No sooner had we settled back in the gate Southwest announced a two-hour delay, later shortened to 1 hour 20 minutes. Our plane was late coming up from Florida or some such. Sigh. Cue depressing music from Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

Finally at about 9:40 PM we’re airborne. The Capitol Limited is running up the Potomac toward Cumberland, dead on schedule. CSX is stabbing the Lake Shore Limited in Central New York. There’s no Wi-Fi and one of the bathrooms is out of service but we’re moving west for the first time today. With the delay we should be in by 10:45 PM CT. That puts us at the hotel by midnight, which sucks, but doesn’t affect the rest of the plan (renting a car at Union Station and driving up to Evanston).

We landed early, at 10:25. Our bag arrived in good order and we proceeded to the CTA station, where of course we had problems making the ticket gates work, because nothing else had worked properly all day. A kind employee helped us along. 40 minutes and a snow-filled walk through the Loop later we presented ourselves at the Hampton Majestic in the Theatre District, about which I have nothing but good things to say. The Capitol Limited had just arrived early into Pittsburgh. The day was over.

Tune in tomorrow for my reflections on What It All Meant.

Featured image courtesy of BriYYZ from Toronto, Canada (SouthwestUploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.