As reporters started the scramble out of South Carolina, many ran into airline delays and travel nightmares. Naturally, many of them took to Twitter to complain. But, one of the worst stories came from poor John Dickerson. The Political Director for CBS News just wanted to get out of Columbia EARLY on Sunday morning. He tweeted in the pre-dawn hours about having to wake up to catch his 6a.m. flight. Which meant getting to the airport at 4:30a.m. Where he was told that his flight was delayed for two hours. Dickerson was slated to appear on “Face the Nation” upon returning home, so this was going to be a close shave. So close, in fact, that when Dickerson realized that he wouldn’t be able to go home before his TV appearance, he was forced to shave in an airport bathroom.

Delayed flight means no going home before TV when I land. Just shaved in airport. Water cold! Hand sensor finicky!

— John Dickerson (@jdickerson) January 22, 2012

At least Dickerson was clean shaven when he approached the United Airlines worker to find out that his 6a.m. flight was now pushed bad to 11a.m. Which meant no television for Dickerson. A pissed off Dickerson’s tweets then took an understandably nasty tone.

Announcement says if I I have any questions to contact a @unitedairlines representative. But when I do so I am confronted by a formless blob.

— John Dickerson (@jdickerson) January 22, 2012

Formless blobs are a dime-a-dozen in South Carolina. I wouldn’t hold it against United particularly. A bad situation turned even worse as Dickerson announced later in the day that the flight had ultimately been canceled.

Latest good news: flight cancelled. — John Dickerson (@jdickerson) January 22, 2012

And with that, Dickerson settled into Columbia for one more night, scheduled to leave on the same flight this morning. So far, so good. He’s already let us know that he’s back at the airport and waiting for takeoff.

…okay Columbia, SC airport we meet again.

— John Dickerson (@jdickerson) January 23, 2012

It’s nice that his travel nightmare finally had a good ending…  Or did it?

Two hours after takeoff, Dickerson again took to twitter.

Took off on @united from Columbia, SC. An hour later landed in….Columbia, SC! Management made pilot return to get crew for another flight — John Dickerson (@jdickerson) January 23, 2012

FishbowlDC has reached out to Dickerson to find out where he is now. We will keep you posted on his whereabouts.

UPDATE – John Dickerson is finally back home. Moments ago, he reached out to us via Twitter with the following:

@FishbowlDC I’m finally home! Doing laundry and expenses before Florida and before @united agents try to drag me back to Columbia, SC.

— John Dickerson (@jdickerson) January 23, 2012