Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Sitting on a plane for 12 hours with a small child isn't my idea of fun...

And we weren't even on our way home from some distant destination. Let me explain.

LAX to Atlanta (direct flight)= 3 hours 47 minutes.
Atlanta to Dallas to Austin back to Dallas to LAX= 11 hours 23 minutes
All the fun we had together while sitting on the full planes entertaining Beckett who slept a total of 30 minutes the entire day=priceless.

I knew it wasn't going to be pretty when we got the airport to check in and Beckett had leaked out of his diaper so bad that he went the rest of our day pants-less. Yeah... we're classy like that.

So we got to our descent to Dallas and flew around for 45 minutes because of thunderstorms. We used up so much gas in the inturum that we ended up flying to Austin to refuel and then sat on the Tarmac there for 2 hours. We then flew back to Dallas. Our layover there had long since departed, but Nathan had called and gotten us on the last and final flight to LA which departed at 6:20. We landed at 6:35. I was seriously distraught. We were going to have to spend the night in the Dallas airport. However, we got to the departure gate to find that the next flight had been delayed and was leaving 10 minutes later. Wonderful, except that we didn't have seats together. Great.
So we get on the plane and this nice woman agrees to trade us seats, and so we sit down, the plane leaves...we're on the runway...and suddenly 'our voice from the cockpit' comes on and tells us we're returning to the gate. So we turn around. However, we were in a larger plane and since not all of the gates cater to that size we had to wait for a gate to open. Meanwhile they wouldn't tell us why we had turned around or what was happening. Finally we get to the gate and see two police officers come on board and take a very questionable looking woman off the plane. At this point we think we're in for a pretty good story. We then wait for another 30 minutes for them to gather her things, and then we are told the story. Turns out some woman changes planes at the last minute and thinks that her dog changes as well. When she finds out that it's on a different plane, she freaks out and threatens the airline stewardess. Lame. So, some lady doesn't take her meds, and we all suffer because of it. Anyway- we started at 2 pm Atlanta time and landed in LA almost 12 hours later. It was brutal and I'm never traveling again. You try and entertain a 14 month old little boy in a 2 foot radius for half of a day and let me know how you feel. Blah.

What's really incredible, though, is that even with all the trouble, the trip was still absolutely worth it. We had such a great time in Atlanta with Logan, Paula, Lydia, and their family and friends, that we would happily do it all over again.

*I promise to post pictures and info about our amazing weekend in Atlanta. I decided to give you the bad news before the good.*

7 comments:

krystie said...

that sucks linds...i sat on a plane for 4 hours with kaida....i know what its like...so i can only imagine....wow.

Unknown said...

Linds I love you. And I'm sorry for your crappy flights. It's bad enough having to fly and do layovers for a billion hours alone, I can't image what it would be like with a kid. Props to you and Nathan. I felt bad 'cause I haven't called you in forever, and on Friday I put it off again and went shopping, but I guess that's when your trip to Atlanta had been, so maybe I feel a little better. ;) But I will definitely call this week. I miss you!

the fellers said...

Holy crap Linds...I am so sorry, i can only imagine what that must have been like, and I have only flown with Scoty twice, and only 1 1/2 hour flights....but i am glad you had a great trip, and I cant wait to see pics!

allisonlaurel said...

Bummer, man. I've vowed not to fly anymore, too, after 8 flights in three months this winter. It bites. What was your trip for? I'm sure you will tell us about it in your next post! Can't wait.

Benji and Rypie said...

Wow Linds, that sounds beastly! I tried to call you last weekend... I chopped off my hair.

Russell Roberts said...

Feel your pain, feel your pain. I feel your pain Roberts family.

Cass said...

A word of advice that you have already learned the hard way....don't fly through DFW in the springtime! We are always hearing about the airport on the news. Last time, one of the local anchor-women from FOX was stuck on an airport on the runway waiting to go to Hawaii and they were phoning her from the station for updates.

Just so you don't think I'm some nutjob (or maybe you will anyway), I am a high school classmate of Nathans (Hi Nathan), new to blogging, and so searching the blogs catching up with people I know.

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