Travel Trials

Well we have been home a few days but our travel is fresh in my mind... We left on the 19th and Chaz and I talked about how early we should get to the airport and he won and said two hours early (I had thought we would need less time). Well It turns out this is what they call a green day!! Which means you will be seeing a sea of green... about 8000 service men and women going home for Christmas!! We arrived at the airport at 5:00 AM to find a huge mess of line after line, that know one knew where they would end but someone had told them to stand in this line. We talked to many service men and women who were really just young kids ready to go home and see their families. Some had been at the airport since 12:30 A.M. standing in line... since the ticket counter's did not open till 4:00 A.M. Just an hour earlier then the normal 5:00 A.M. Turns out that they had started at midnight running 100 buses constantly round trip from the base to the airport with the soldiers on the buses in no real order!! Some did not have a flight until that afternoon or evening. I joked that the government saved 2.4 million by not having to feed them that day. Well the mess was no joke we had a 7:00 A.M. flight that we missed and Southwest was not very helpful in trying to get people on their flights. Well 7:00 A.M. came and went we waited in line.... then we finally made it to the ticket counter and was told the next available flight was at 5:40 P.M. but we could try stand by for the 7:40 flight and all the flights that went before the 5:40 flight which has a stop in Birmingham, AL ... A quick discussion of what we wanted to do ( at that point I wanted to call off the whole trip and just go home) But we decided to push on and hope for the best. The line for security was much more organized! This begin the day at the airport... we had a few minutes after security to see if we could get the standby on the 7:40 flight no such luck try the flight at 8:35 which has to stop in Louisville. Well we eat some Breakfast and then find a less congested area in the airport to let Charlie run around and look out the window at the planes, trucks and stuff moving around the airport. Then back to the gate to try to catch the 8:35 looks like we can get this flight... well I start talking to the agent and find out we are on the first leg but out of Louisville we screwed every thing's booked and we will have to hope for a stand by flight. Tell her no we do not want it... I am glad I kept talking to her! Next chance is 11:40 nonstop that would be great!! So we go down to the closed gate area where we can plug in the phones and DVD player and let Charlie wonder around. Hang out and try and not get upset about the ordeal. Well as the 11:40 gets closer, Charlie is napping and I tell Chaz I am going to talk to the agents and just go for a walk... Well 11:40 is delayed till 12:15 and I find out there is a nonstop at 3:00 So I go to that gate and talk to the ladies there which are actually helpful... They explain that I do not have to keep doing all this running that there is one stand by list, and it transfers to each flight after one closes. Two very pleasant ladies!! So at 12 we head to see about the 11:40 delayed flight it's delayed till 2:15 and people are saying it still has not left Chicago so it will be even later. So I head down to talk to my friends at the other gate to see what happens it the three o'clock flight leaves before the 11:40 flight. Well everyone is con fussed but they look at the stand by list and say we on top so the next flight that leaves if they have seats we are on it. So we go back down to the closed gate area we found hang out and head back at two to see about the 11:40 flight it is now delayed more. We eat lunch and here comes one agent I have been talking to and she tells us that they are only supposed to have the one stand by list but with the 11:40 flight delay and a glitch in the system they have a second list for the three o'clock flight and she puts us on there so be at the gate by 2:45. Thank you Roxie!!!!! Well we get there and allot of people hope for seats and they announce that they have some seats and will be calling stand by passengers! What a relief! One couple is called before us but they waste no time you have about 30 seconds to respond and they did not so we are up!! Tickets and stroller tagged now just wait to board. Eight hours after our original flight we are on our way!









The wait.