Anytime Chris travels it is an ordeal. Which, of course wouldn't be that big of a deal if he were an occasional traveller. As it is he travels by plane at least one hundred times a year or more, and some of that is international flying which adds another dimension to Chris' travelling dilemmas. I can't begin to number the cancelled and delayed flight, or the times he has driven home from Atlanta for missing his connection in Atlanta etc. . . This week was a classic example of Chris and travel. We left the house early for Baltimore on Thursday morning, so that we could eat lunch together as a family and then drop Chris off at the airport for his flight to Chicago and then out of the country. After having a nice lunch at Damons and then eating Cold Stone Ice cream for dessert, we took him and dropped him off at the airport. We had to be especially careful not to say the word bye or goodbye as that triggers an extremely emotional fit from Caden. Successful at dropping him off on time, we headed to a friends house to stop by for a few minutes. Of course a few minutes turned into about 1 hour and a half. As I climbed into the car the phone rang. It was Chris -- but it shouldn't have been because his flight was supposed to have taken off already (at 1730). His flight was delayed. After sitting there until about 2100 it became obvious that he would not make his connection out of Chicago. There was no room on the flight out of Chicago the next day. So, we had to reschedule everything. Chris had to move his flight from Baltimore to Chicago and take a flight the next day from Washington Dulles to New York instead. That way he could catch his international flight ( which he also had to change ) from NY. I at the same time ordered him a rental car to drive home for the night. He got in at about 0100 that evening. Boy were the kids shocked to see him in the morning. LOL. Luckily he had the rental car so the next day he drove himself to his departing flight. He called me to tell me he was heading down the ramp to the plane and then called back 5 minutes later to tell me he was on a 3 hour weather hold. AAAGGGHHHH! So, he sat in the airport for a while. About an hour before they were to take off on their delay -- the flight attendant incorrectly announced the flight had been cancelled. Chris called,and asked for me to come and pick him up,but then, about 10 minutes later called back to say never mind it was a mistake. Talk about a yo-yo. They finally started to board the plane only to discover that they had dropped the reservations for and re ticketed some of the seats from the first 20 people who had been deboarded for the weather delay ( Chris included of course ). Now there was a further 15 minute delay. He finally did take off for NY not knowing if he would make his international connection or not. They were scheduled to arrive with an hour until his international flight departed. I went to bed and woke up with a very irritated Chris calling me. They had arrived with more than enough time to make his connection, but had been sitting on the taxiway for 20 minutes,and counting, waiting to park. About an hour later I got another call from a much more relaxed Chris sitting on his RJ flight. There had been several people from several different flight delayed and the RJ flight had waited for them all -- Thank God. Chris landed safely and called that he was there and safe but no sign of his luggage yet. Hopefully I will hear that he has found his luggage before he has to leave on this Military Airlift (MAC) flight tomorrow. Whew! It is always so stressful until he finally gets there ( still 2 days off ).
Having gotten Chris out the door now we can focus on the fun of the next week. The boys are so excited to be having friends over on Monday - There will be four more boys around on Monday. Then, Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma and Grandpa are coming into town for a few days. We have lots of cleaning to do, but everyone has been for warned that we are a bit messy still as we are not completely moved in yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment