The Trip From Hell

We were stopped at the United counter at Dulles because they thought we needed a visa to travel to England. My husband is originally from Iran and thank goodness the passport proves his US citizenship! We were supposed to leave at 10 PM, but were delayed because the baggage count did not match the passenger count, so we had to wait for 3 passengers late from a connecting flight. During that time a huge rainstorm erupted leaving us in the plane next to the terminal for FOUR hours in the cattle section. Our narrow window to escape closed. The first class passengers lost their Internet access so the system had to be rebooted about 6 times. Several mechanics were running to the rear of the plane to do we don't know what. When we finally took off it was 2 AM. On the way up the plane was hit by lightning. The stewardess stopped mid sentence and everyone was a bit uncomfortable. The captain finally came on to say all the electrical was working. Everyone was very cooperative because they were asleep. I can only say there was a lot of turbulence and it was the worst flight I've been on. We very happy to finally land after our almost 11 hour flight to London. Please give me a reason why people like this inconvenience. I hope I forget it soon so we can enjoy the time with our friends who are there on the other side of the ocean.