My daughter arrived from Austin with her daughter and her dogs
and an assortment of minions in tow. She was supposed to also have a suitcase for me. Within moments of her arrival I was informed she had forgotten the suitcase and was leaving her dogs for me to babysit while she, my granddaughter and minions went to the beach. I had to be at the airport by 9:00 in the morning on Saturday. Now I was having to readjust my budget and rearrange my evening to include a trip to the store to buy a suitcase.
A few hours later I am off to the store where I found the perfect bag and stepped in line to pay for it. I get to the cash wrap stand and the clerk asks for payment. I look at my purse and the horror starts. I had removed all my money and credit cards and put them in my travel bag. But wait, I have checks. But then she asks for my ID which is at home with my money in my travel bag. They refuse to take my check without it and are very dismayed I do not have my Driver’s License number memorized. Who does that? Memorize that number? I live in America, we have technology, look it up! I pick up my unwanted check and walk out. Back in the car, driving home, picking up my travel bag and heading back to the store I begin to wonder if this “escape” plan I have in play is even going to work. I have barely survived the week.
Back in the store we head straight to the cash wrap stand and are now in a long waiting line. Where did all of these people come from? Our turn arrives and we get the same clerk. Keep in mind barely 15 minutes has passed. She says “hi”! Shaggy responds “we are back” and the girl just nods and asks if she can help us. She is clueless and does not remember us even after I caused a minor incident over the check earlier. I ask for the suitcase. She points across the store. (Really????) I point to the one behind her. She looks and the lights dawn on her very dim mind. I pay and we leave. The rest of the night passes in relative calm. I am encouraged and believe the worst is soon behind me.
Saturday morning dawns uneventful and all is good checking in for my flight. Or so I thought.
Bags checked, flight upgrade checked, all in carry on for flight checked. Arrive at TSA check in and the man eyes me, my boarding pass, and asks for my ID and eyes that, me and the boarding pass for several stress filled moments. He waves over the Supervisor and she eyes me, the boarding pass and my passport. She looks me dead on and says “no worry you are fine, relax.” What did I appear about to bolt? “Did you realize they have misspelled your name on your boarding pass? Did the agent notice?” No I did not and I am sure he did not either. (Yes we noticed and yes we intended to create an international incident! Really???) She eventually waved me on and then I knew, the nightmare was about to continue from the week before.
I board the flight and there I see a very large man wearing a health mask sitting in what I just knew was the seat next to mine. Yes it was and he proceeds to cough his way to Dallas. Great!!! If that was not bad enough I paid for an upgraded seat that promised more leg room. Uhm….. for whose legs? Stimpy McGee?? They were touching the back of the seat in front of me. I feel cheated and at the same time thankful that the flight is only 45 minutes long. Maybe. We back up from the gate and sit there, and sit there and sit there. Finally Captain Jeff announces that there is a slight delay and we will be getting to Dallas a bit late but he sees no problem with connecting flights. What!! I only had 45 minutes to get to my connection on the first place.
Arriving in Dallas we are told what gate our connecting flights are parked at. I get C-39. I hope we are unloading at that gate but no, we pull up to gate A-4. I now have less than 20 minutes to get through three terminals to my gate. I arrive as they are boarding the last of the passengers. I order my drink and we pull back from the gate. I finally let out a breath I did not realize I was holding as we reach the taxi-way and wait our turn. Captain Rick comes on the system and tells us that the fuel gauges are not reading. He knows we have fuel but the gauges are not showing anything and we will not fly with faulty readings so we head back to the terminal. He tells us maintenance has been called and will meet us at the terminal. It will be just a few minutes. Us rock stars in First
Class had already ordered our meal service. Back out of the warmer they come. Captain Rick comes back on and says we can get off the plane if we choose. After several more moments he comes back on and says we all have to get off the plane. The agents at the gate will keep us updated. We are told it will be an hour. We finally get to re-board and take off and all goes well. However we have lost a few passengers who were not going to make their connecting international flights. The few remaining on board will have about 25 minutes to make their connections. We land without further incident and then the pilot hits the gas and we taxi toward the terminal at about 180 mph. We drift the curves and the turns and I am suddenly in a Fast and Furious sequel. I am looking around for Vin, The Rock, anyone. The flight crew ask that anyone not catching a flight please stay seated. I do. Apparently the only one and as I finally leave the flight crew, captain and all thank me for waiting to disembark last. An upgrade on my return flight would have been nice.
All this maintenance issue caused my meal to be reheated three times and the tortellini was dry, brown and crunchy. Yeah!!
The trip to the Hotel was thankfully uneventful. So went the end of a very unfortunate week. I am looking forward to the upcoming week with nothing short of apocalyptic dread.
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