Adventures in Flying

My mom departed Seattle late Wednesday morning for a much-anticipated visit. We spent the morning talking about her arrival with Ella saying things like “I love Grandma!” and “Grandma’s my friend.” She was even willing to go down for a nap a bit earlier so we could leave in time to pick grandma up!

We live 1 hour and 45 minutes from the nearest major airport, so I prepped for what my small town kids *shaking my head at this* consider to be a long drive. Prior experience has taught me that I should pack what I consider to be a lot of snacks and then add more. These kids get bored while driving, so we had graham crackers, banana bread, fruit snacks, squeezable fruit, crackers, cheese sticks, juice, and water. I also packed a bag of car-friendly toys, plus Laurie Berkner and Funky Mama CDs, in hopes that we could have a relatively wine-free trip.

Mom wisely purchased a non-stop ticket, so she expected a 3 hour 45 minute trip from Seattle to St. Louis. She called me before her plane was due to leave, slightly annoyed that it looked like they would have a late departure…if she’d only known at the time what  small hiccup this would be in the scheme of things. I followed her advice, checked the flight status, saw it was running behind and left about a half hour later than planned. In fact, I left, had to come back for my stroller, absentmindedly headed the wrong direction, then finally got on my way to St. Louis. I laugh now because I was actually worried that we’d be late.

Midway to St. Louis, I got a call from my mom and immediately thought, “Now they’re early?” If only…it turned out she was calling from Omaha to let me know that they’d made an unscheduled stop. Apparently, some crazy decided he needed to make the trip miserable for everyone else. He’d boarded the plane in a mechanic type jumpsuit. Part-way through the flight, he’d removed this and approached the pilot’s door in a tank top and shorts. He then proceeded to bang on the pilot’s door mid-flight because he needed their names for some crazies convention he planned on attending in St. Louis.

The flight attendants didn’t like this so much and he refused to sit down, so they decided to stop in Omaha so the police there could arrest him. Apparently, he laughed and told the other passengers they’d probably see this on CNN later. They were not impressed. Then came the paperwork and the waiting…and then everyone had to pee before they took off again.

We arrived at the airport to find that the 5:10 arrival (that I expected to arrive at 5:30) had changed to 6:25. Joy. An overexcited 3 1/2 year-old and an antsy 18 month old in an airport terminal with some books, snacks, and a stroller. Ella was actually amazing, but Ezra just wanted to go outside through the automated doors and up and down the escalator. We made it through by going on walks, playing simon says, and discovering the hotel call phones. We were thrilled when the status changed to “in range” and then ecstatic when it said “landed.”

Mom called and I thought, “she in baggage claim.” But no. They’d landed, but lightening prevented them from moving to the gate. Seriously? Poor Mom. They eventually got off the plane, but it must have been somewhere around 7 pm. Then it took 30 more minutes for the bags to arrive. The passengers were surprisingly gracious about it – well they mostly seemed giddy tired – but I did hear phrases like “I wished they’d just tazed him” bandied about.

We eventually made it home about 10 pm and Mom is now here safe and sound. We are loving it and we’re so grateful she travels to visit us despite the hassles. But this didn’t  have to be so difficult.

When she departs St. Louis, I hope the crazies stay home.


I’m participating in Friday-Follow today! Follow the link to join in the fun!