It's hard to have much patience when your wake-up call is for 3:30 a.m., but that's what I needed this morning at Des Moines International Airport.

It was a comedy of errors from the start, as we drove the snowy streets of downtown in the dark, windshield covered in a patch of ice. The posse consisted of myself, The Washington Times' photo goddess Astrid Riecken and my buddy Jose Antonio Vargas from The Post.

The below-zero wind chills and nonfunctional espresso machine seemed minor as we waited for our flight to board and tried not to worry when the crew talked about the need to weight-balance the 44-seat plane. Then at about 6 a.m., when the flight was scheduled to leave, they announced a problem — a big problem.

The Delta flight crew, describing the situation only as a "standoff between maintenance and the pilot," told us the plane was severely delayed and likely canceled.

Now, I like Des Moines a lot, but its airport is not a major hub by any stretch of the imagination. A Chicago-based TV crew quickly learned that the only other flight out of Iowa that could possibly get us to Columbia, S.C., for Day Two of the Oprah-Obama tour had just departed.

We frantically made calls and scanned our Blackberry versions of the Internet for any other options. Was it really only 12 hours to Columbia? We shoud have driven last night, we said. (It's more like 16 hours.) Could we fly into Charlotte or Charleston and still make it? Were we willing to scrap the plan and jump ahead of Obama and Oprah to Manchester, N.H.? Nope.

In a moment of desperation I e-mailed the Obama campaign, half-jokingly asking if the five journos trying to get to Columbia could stow away on Oprah's private jet.

The waiting area at the gate was a picture of Americana — Midwestern women visiting new grandchildren, two separate troops waiting with their families before deploying to Iraq and one woman who spoke only Spanish. Turns out this California girl was the only person who could communicate with her, and not very well.

Searching for the right words, and not having any real answers from Delta, I told my Belize-bound friend that "el avion" was "roto," meaning broken. "Necesitas paciencia," I told her, good advice for all of us.

There were couples anxious they wouldn't make the ship-off for their Caribbean cruise, and little kids whose smiles evaporated when they found out their Disney World dreams would have to be delayed.

We waited in a long line — as the Delta computers malfunctioned — and listened to everyone's sob stories. Flights to Chicago were oversold, new connections weren't the right times and folks were grumpy to say the least.

But good news at last two hours into our adventure. The co-pilot came out and we peppered him with questions. He told us we were in the clear for takeoff. (He had a good laugh line too: "Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground.")

We soon were backed up on the next flight from Atlanta to Columbia, and I was grinning from ear to ear as I trudged through the snow on the runway to our plane.

But it wasn't over — the pilot apologized for a further delay due to "some paperwork issues" because "as you know on an airplane you have to be 100 percent. We appreciate your patience."

Seriously.

At least 30 minutes later, the pilot said we had to wait further for de-icing "because there can't be even one snowflake" on the wings, and then for the anti-ice process, where a crew pours a "hot syrup" on the wings to protect it from the snow.

We just landed in Atlanta, and it seems like all systems are go to get us to the Palmetto State in time for the O-O show. In the meantime, I'll be patient.

-- Christina Bellantoni, national political reporter, The Washington Times

UPDATE: Dec. 10

As Bart Simpson once said, there's a little epilogue to my tale of sadness.

We were delayed more than an hour out of Atlanta. After a few frantic calls to the campaign, we persuaded them to let us in later than the press cut-off time. And so we waited. And waited.

When we finally boarded, the pilot apologized for the delay and told us there had been a bomb threat at the airport in Albany, Ga. Of course.

We landed with about 18 minutes to get to the event. We ran to the cab stand and promised big bucks to the driver who could get us to the stadium in time.

Somehow it all worked out -- we arrived the moment the event started and enjoyed some great South Carolina weather.

Now I'm headed back to Iowa for some Bill Clinton and John Edwards events. Speaking of Edwards, he announced yesterday that actors Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins will be joining him on the trail.

-- CB