A Dream Come True!: Leaving on a Jetplane......NOT!

(This is long but if you wade through it there are pictures at the end.)

Today, Evvy and I got up and had a somewhat relaxing morning as I finished up the last minute packing. I weighed the suitcases to make sure they weren't overweight and we were 3# under on the big one with all the Christmas presents. The forecast when we went to bed last night was for a big snow storm with high winds. I hoped that the weathermen would continue to be wrong. I packed everything in the car and we headed over to Peggy's house. She had graciously agreed to drive us to the airport so I wouldn't have to leave the car there and so she could drop us off at curbside with all of our stuff. I had no idea how much stuff was REQUIRED for travelling/flying with a young child especially at Christmas time.

Christmas presents for all (I left behind the big ones that I had already given to Evvy early cause there was no way they would fit in the suitcases especially once they were assembled.

2 sets of clothes/day for Evvy. Not too bad cause they are small clothes.

2 blankets--one to carry on the plane and the other one required for sleeping.

Books & toys to entertain her on the plane and at the airport.

Diapers for a week.

Mommy's stuff (I pack relatively light) preparing for a wide range of weathers. Even though we are going to Texas it still can be unpredictable and cool/cold.

Winter coats, hats and mittens. After all, we were leaving and returning to the cold midwest.

Stroller--against my mother's wishes I chose to bring the big one that reclines and has a basket and SOOOO glad I did (you will understand better later in the post).

Carseat. Have to have to transport baby to and from the airport and around town once we arrive at our destination.

Diaper bag with said toys & books, diapers, wipes, blankie, change of clothes, snacks, sippy cup, plane tickets, ids, birth certificate (just in case for baby), plastic bag for liquids.

So all in all we had 2 suitcases (48# and 23#), 1 diaper bag, 1 stroller, 1 carseat, 1 baby, 1 mommy.

Amazingly I didn't forget anything essential and even had a few diapers left at the end of the trip.

Anyway, we get to Peggy's. Install her carseat, cram the suitcases and stroller, Evvy, Peggy's 3 kids, Peggy and myself into her mini van. It was a tight squeeze. We then dropped my car off at the shop to be tuned up while we were gone.

As we drove to the airport, it was raining. As we got further north (it is about 30 minutes north of where we live), it started sleeting. By the time we got to the airport, the roads were very snowy and slushy. I wasn't worried. Planes fly in the snow all the time, right.

We pulled up to the curb right in front of the skycap station. Unloaded my little eskimo who started shivering cause it was cold, snowy and windy. Unloaded said luggage and carseat, handed the guy a generous tip and headed inside.

The monitors said we were still ontime. We went and had some lunch, had a diaper change in the wonderful family bathroom. Really it was great. It was a room with a big person toilet, lots of space for all our stuff and a nice changing counter, sink, hand sanitizer. We should have just stayed in there while we waited. Then we had to go through security. That was fun (NOT). Had to remove diaper bag, baby, blanket, coats, baby from stroller. Put them all in the lovely grey bins. Heft the stroller up on the conveyer belt to go through the x-ray machine. Heft the baby who is screaming cause her blankie was being x-ray'd and not in her hands. But alas we made no beeping sounds and were allowed into the gate area to hopefully board our flight soon.

Got through security put everything back into the stroller and found a place to sit. Did I say sit. No, you don't sit at an airport with an 18 month old, you find a place to let her run, climb and push her stroller. Luckily there were big windows with short ledges that made a perfect seat for a little one. So there we were watching the snow. Watching no airplanes coming or going. It really started getting bad so that you couldn't hardly see out the window past the gateways. I thought, so we will just be late. I called my brother and said don't go to the airport unless you check with the airline first cause it looks like we might be 30-45 minutes late.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 2pm and arrive at 4pm. At 3pm we were still here. I called my brother who didn't answer so I finally got my mom on her phone and told her to tell my brother not to go to the airport yet. She said, well, they are already on their way. They called the airline and it said your flight was ontime. How is that for efficiency. We hadn't even left yet an hour after we were supposed to leave and we were going to arrive ontime. I guess they were optimistic and maybe they had a supersonic jet on standby.

My brother called about 4pm and asked for a status update. He and my dad were hanging out at Cabellas thinking they could just blow some time until we arrived. I told him that they didn't know when we were leaving and that it was a 2 hour flight so they might want to head home. They live 45-60 minutes from the airport.

Well finally a little after 6pm, the gate agent came on the microphone to make an announcement. We all thought for sure we were going to start boarding because 2 other flights had started boarding and were getting ready to leave. However, she came on and told us that they were cancelling our flight due to the weather. Still makes no sense to me since other planes were now leaving. The only thing that I can think of is the crew were out of hours or they just decided that the flight wasn't full enough and that they would take advantage and cut some costs and put us on the flights the following day so they would have full flights the next day.

Oh, I forgot to mention that during our 6 hour wait, they had us change gates which involved going through the wonderful security routine again since at this airport they have security for each set of gates. Luckily after the gate change, Evvy decided she had had enough fun and she fell asleep for 1 1/2 hours in the stroller. Had I brought the umbrella stroller, she wouldn't have been able to sleep so long and been comfortable plus I would have been lugging a lot more stuff cause the umbrella has no storage basket.

So they tell us to line up and they would rebook us for a flight the following day. We luckily were standing right by the podium and got on the 9am flight the next morning. Other people were not so fortunate and had to wait for the 2pm flight. They then told us to go collect our luggage and that we would have to recheck it tomorrow. I am thinking, you have got to be kidding. See above for all the luggage we had and now I am by myself with no help. We waited for awhile and the luggage didn't come up. I called one friend who lives relatively close to the airport but they weren't home. I couldn't have Peggy come back and get us. The roads were pretty bad plus we had to be back up to the airport by 8am the next morning. So while waiting for the luggage, I started calling the hotels. I learned about "distressed passenger rates" and was able to stay at a nice hotel for $59/night. Got lucky with that rate cause when we were checking in she started quoting 80-125/night depending on who called. Again, luggage didn't come and didn't come so I asked the luggage office what happened if we didn't collect our luggage. She rolled her eyes and said that all unclaimed luggage had to be stored in their luggage office which she emphasized was not very large and they already had a large backlog of luggage. I am thinking, oh well, your problem, not mine. I deserted the 2 suitcases and carseat and hopped onboard the hotel shutle with a diaper bag, baby and stroller.

I am so glad that I packed extra diapers and extra close for Evvy. At least she got to wear fresh clothes the next day and to sleep in.

We had a King size sleep number bed and Evvy slept great; me not so great with the bed hog.

Well this turned into a super long post but it was a super long day. Here are a few pictures from our adventuresome day at the airport and hotel 30 minutes from home.
Susan

It doesn't look too bad, right?