Trip Purge…Vent Ovah!
This here is my trip purge. After reading it again, it doesn’t sound that bad. But when you are in the moments of traveling with young ones and fussy babies, with armloads of stuff, with no landing pad, no proper meals, no proper sleep, and no clean clothes for 2 days, and nothing is lining up for you, it’s a hard time. Hard time.
Now we are seasoned travelers, and thank our lucky stars, we usually travel so well. Hardly ever have a problem. This time, not so much…
– First thing at first check-in our flight is already 2 hours delayed.
– And our connecting flight cancelled. But we manage to rebook a connector with 20 minutes to get to the gate. Good luck to us.
– On plane we deal with the usual antsy baby stress. Hubby is standing in aisle with him. (and for some miraculous reason, he decided to sit down, thank goodness because…)
– Not 2 minutes later, our plane takes an unexpected DIVE to the left. Not bump, not turbulence. A dive. Where people are screaming. Seriously. Apparently, our plane got too close to the jetstream of a 747, and we dove. Honestly, I’m not being dramatic about this, my life flashed before my eyes for 1 second. We recovered and carried on. Whoa nelly.
– So we get to Chicago to catch our next flight, with 15 minutes to get to the gate. We are the running gong show, going full steam with kids and all of our stuff. And get there in time. And get scolded like a 2 year old by the clerk. And have to walk on to a full plane, with everyone seated and buckled in, giving us the hairy eyeball. Like it’s our fault our flights have been delayed. Whatev. At this point, I dare you to say something to me…
– Finally we arrive in Minneapolis, so ready to get our stuff and get to the hotel to bed. But, we don’t have our bags, or our carseats. No, they missed the connector. Great.
– So we make the best of it, and win the ‘Parents of the Year’ award, by taking the kids thru the McDonald’s drive thru at 1 AM. Nice.
– Off to an early start the next day, courtesy of baby. And still no bags. We are dirty. Smelly. Cranky. No bags until 9 pm that day. Thankful for the little things like the fact that our bags weren’t lost!
– The wedding and visiting with friends was great. We did enjoy it. But the hubby and I were exhausted, could barely make conversation, and had to skip out early on the rehearsal dinner and wedding. Oh well. What can you do? No good to be trying to have a conversation with anyone with drool dripping down your tired face!
– Blizzard hits Minneapolis. All of our friends snowed in for 2 more days. Luckily our flight is booked for later in the week.
– Time to go home! Yay! Only 2 flights to endure. Can’t be that bad right?!
– Wrong. After spending almost 2 hours in check-in and security, we are about to board our plane with only minutes to spare, when I remember I left my wallet in the glove box of the rental van. Oy. Hubby manages to track it down and has someone run it to our gate. But the plane is waiting. For him. They are closing the plane door, and telling him to catch the next one. To hell with that. He was not happy. They let him on. I can’t even tell you how relieved I was. Again, my life flashed before my eyes! Me, traveling with all 3 kids by myself? I just can’t even go there!
– On the flight, we are that baby. The one you can hear crying and fussing. Everyone is looking at us. I have thick skin at this point. Finally we land. He falls asleep as we are taxi-ing to the terminal. ha ha
– Next flight not too bad. Just the usual baby fuss. We are so excited to finally get home.
– We’ve got our bags, our kids and our sanity left in tact.
– But we discover our van has 2 flat tires. And it’s -20 degrees C.
– I finally breakdown. Not a proud mommy moment as I’m crying in the airport. It was all I could do.
– But we made it. AMA saved the day. We are home. We are safe. We are home.
Back in our beds. Back eating real food. The baby is contained.
Thank goodness. Oh jeez.
Oh, did I mention that we found the hotel phone in our bag when we got home! ha! ha!
OMGosh…..Jo-Anna, it does sound THAT bad. That really stinks and I don’t blame you for breaking down,….you last a heck of a lot longer than I would with my three little ones!
WOW! Just reading that made me anxious and tired. Thank goodness it’s over and you’re safe and warm at home 🙂
Lordy! That does not sound like fun, but glad you are home safe and snug!
Wowzers!! You are brave to even relive this…glad you guys are home and safe!
xx-Kristyn
You forgot to mention the gross lady sitting in front of us that was trying to rid herself of lung butter – or the fact that you got yelled at by a bartender and a catering guy because Coop’s shoes were to loud and he was underfoot. Or the snotty lady at the St. Paul Hotel that thought you were a puck bunny when you were trying to get ahold of your hockey playing cousin as he happened to be in town playing the Wild. Or the burnt IHOP french toast that Coop wouldn’t eat. How about grumpy Berle, the Target cashier who crabbed at our children for being in his way? Or the smelly gentleman who “tooted” for 3 hours all the way back home. Don’t forget the lousy attitude of the American Airlines baggage claim employee that told me to stop calling (I called twice in 6 hours) and that she would call me when our bags showed up and then hung up.
Oh my gosh..Worst. Trip. EVAH!
Oh..you poor things! They could make a t.v. show out of this! I just found your blog and I’m loving it! Take care.
LORDY! Oh Jo and Tob, too funny. I want to cry for you. I feel you pain.
I love your blog!!! We are playing a game and I have awarded 15 of my favorite blogs a “Versitile Blogger” award! Come by to play! 🙂
http://lanis-hammertime.blogspot.com/
I’ve been wondering how the trip went… now I know! Yikes! Glad you survived – everyone was little once – why do people seem to forget that!