I made the mistake of prematurely making the trek down to gate D3 in DFW last week in a rolling delay situation. In hindsight, I wish I had figured out a way to defer the gate area experience (miserable place) as long as possible. The thing is, it takes 10+ minutes to get to the low numbered gates from the nice parts of the terminal, and the plan was to board the plane as quickly as humanly possible after the crew showed up. Still, I'll try to be a little smarter next time I find myself in a similar situation.