Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Our travel travails

Well, in spite of all my planning, our travels have started off with quite a bang. We got to the airport this morning for our 8:40 am flight, got our boarding passes, breezed through security and then sauntered over to fill our water bottles at the water fountain and pick up some snacks for the flight. I figured we had plenty of time, but the lines were long and we ended up not getting to the gate until about 15 minutes before our flight was scheduled to take off.

I figured we would breeze in at the end of boarding and get our seats, but when we arrived at the gate which claimed it was in "Final Boarding", the gate was closed and we were informed that they had already given away our seats and were leaving. Well, I guess that done learned us a lesson. We got rescheduled to the 2:05 flight which was delayed so we spent 6 hours attempting to keep the kids entertained at the airport. It took us a good hour before we were able to stop focusing on our stupidity and just deal with the situation. I was even more upset because I just came down with the kids' head cold.

About ten minutes before we boarded our flight my husband realized his water bottle had opened and had leaked all over our laptop. As you can see, it's fine as I'm enjoying some wifi at 35,000 feet. However, Emma just went to the airplane bathroom and got trapped. She couldn't figure out how to get out of the bathroom, so my husband spent a few minutes yelling instructions about how to get out. The flight attendant eventually came over and showed us the emergency door unlock and Emma came out in a panic, crying hysterically. I don't think she'll be going in there again anytime soon. Since then, both kids' water bottles pretty much turned into geysers due to the cabin pressurization.

Let's hope that we're getting all the craziness out of the way now.

Anyway, so far no sustainable things to tell you about except for the fact that we brought our own food and own water bottles to fill up at the airport, which has limited water fountains, just to ensure that you buy the bottled water at the airport. Our food choices while we waited were abysmal as we didn't anticipate having to pack for two meals.

Given our luck so far, if you hear anything about Alaska flight #2 to DC, please carry the torch for me! I hope to post something more positive tomorrow.

6 comments:

Tree Huggin Momma said...

Lets hope this is your trifecta and the rest of your trip is a breeze.

Farmer's Daughter said...

Poor Emma! That must have been very scary for her!

I hate flying for just those reasons. So many bad expperiences of missing a connection and not getting home, being delayed due to weather/malfunctions. And I don't fly that much!

Nina said...

ugh. I did the same thing last summer with my son - got there on time for me, but they had closed the gate as I walked up and wouldn't let me in. and I only live 20 min from the airport but just stayed for hours at the airport as they wouldn't let me get booked on a flight till 2 hours before and weren't sure if there would be room in the nonstop. ugh...it was awful and the gate agent was very rude about it.

Greenpa said...

ow, ow, ow. I love Amtrac. Yeah, it's like 3 days one way for you- but I've done it, with small children (and a room!), and it's like being on an ocean cruise. You're isolated from the inanities and insanities of the world, for a little while. A nice time out.

So how close were you to going postal?

equa yona(Big Bear) said...

I saw your pictures on Facebook and everyone looked as if they have gotten over this. Flying SUCKS! Greenpa, there isn't a train station in the entire stae of South Dakota, ain't that sad?

Debbie said...

I just got off a United flight. For the first time in my experience, they actually collected the aluminum cans separately. And they had no complaints with filling my carry-on mug in leiu of new plastic cups. Its a start.
Debbie