My alarm went off at 5am and I snoozed it, just like any
other day. Ed told me not to rush
because the plane was already running late.
That was a bad idea because I just stayed in bed for a little while
longer. I am still feeling like crap, so
a few minutes of extra sleep was nice!
We got ready and packed the rest of our stuff. I was getting nervous because we were really
cutting it close with our luggage. I am
sure something is going to be over the weight limit. Oh well, we just have to wait and see.
We checked out of the Tulip Inn and headed to the
airport. We did the normal routine of
returning the rental car and heading to check in. Again, I was nervous about this whole process
because of the lovely “underwear bomber” as I like to call him. Little did we know what we were in for!
We got to the ticket counter and began the check in
process. The lady was very nice and I
wanted to make sure not to get upset at any time because that sure won’t help
this whole situation. At first, I
thought she was telling us that we had way too much luggage but after talking
to her about when we booked our flight and the rules now, we were okay. Now, it’s time to weigh the luggage. Oh spirits of luggage weight please be with
us! So, she weighed our luggage and it
was all okay except for one….which didn’t even have souvenirs in it…it was all
dirty clothes! This particular suitcase
ended up being almost twice the weight limit.
At this point, we just decided to pay the $50 and get on our way. We finished with the ticket agent and headed
to the kiosk to pay the penalty for having too much crap. Ed went to pay and there was no option on the
kiosk to pay so we jst went on our merry way.
So, we headed to the dreaded security line. We waited for about an hour and a half before
it was our turn. I have four words for
you: Full body pat downs. This is what happens when you are leaving
from the same place a guy did with explosives in his pants. Have I mentioned how much I dislike this
guy? Anyway, after getting searched up,
down, and sideways, we got through the pat down process. Now, it was time to watch the TSA guy go
through our luggage piece by piece. I
was worried when we checked in because our carry on luggage had food in it
because we figured that they were going to make us check it in. British Airways pretty much took all of
Marsha’s luggage, so we were planning for the worst. So, when they let us keep our backpacks with
laptops and our “trolleys” (rolling carry on suitcases), I was scared that we
would lose some of the precious cheese that was causing our luggage
issues. So, I watched the guy go through
my luggage and he looked at the cheese and, for a minute, I thought he was
going to confiscate it. He started
talking about how good the cheese was and each piece of cheese he pulled out, he
talked about. Finally, I was done and I
looked over and the TSA guy going through Ed’s luggage had my little medicine
cabinet and was going through it. He
pulled out the Rubbermaid ice packs that I had in there in case I needed to ice
my feet. I totally forgot about them and
never used them anyway. When they are
thawed, they are gel….which is not allowed.
The scary thing is that the TSA guys had no idea what this was and were
reading the package and talking to each other in Dutch and in my head I was
screaming, “I am not an ice pack terrorist!!
I just have foot issues!” I must
have said, “You can toss that,” a hundred different ways before they finally
said, “We are going to have to take this.”
PLEASE DO! This is what I wanted
to yell. Finally, we were through
security. My only complaint is that
there was nowhere to buy water at this point and I was still hacking a lung. We finally got on the plane and I am really
not looking forward to this leg of the trip.
We got settled and I got the aisle this time because of my illness…we
didn’t want to totally freak someone out by making them sit next to me. The flight went fine. Since I was coughing so much, I didn’t sleep
at all. I went through most of a bag of
economy cough drops and before I knew it, 10 hours had passed.
We arrived at the airport in Houston where we were to
catch our connecting flight to Phoenix.
This was where it got interesting.
We got off the plane and went through Customs with no problem. It was probably about 20 – 30 minutes or
so. We headed towards the gates and
passed through baggage claim. We weren’t
sure if we were supposed to get our luggage or not since this was the first
time we took this airline. We were
looking around and saw the cutest drug sniffing dog ever! It was a little Beagle and I wanted to take a
picture so bad but was afraid to get in trouble, so I didn’t. We started to walk through to the rest of the
gates and overheard an employee asking someone else why they didn’t have their
luggage. She kind of followed them so we
hurried up and went back over the line to get back to the baggage claim since
we realized we were supposed to get our luggage. We retrieved all our crap and headed through
the next set of gates. There was another
checkpoint and they had us go into another room and put all our luggage through
an X-ray machine. We did this and then
headed down the hall to put our luggage that we had checked in on a belt to go
back on the plane. Then, we had to go
through security AGAIN! Off come the shoes,
the jacket, out comes the laptop, liquids…..what on earth could I have done
with all this stuff in the time I got off the plane? Of course, I didn’t say a word for fear of
upsetting someone and went through the whole process again. I am exhausted by this point and realize that
I am drenched. I think that I may have
had a fever on the plane and then it broke right before we had our airport
workout. Finally, we got to the gate
with only a few minutes to spare. The
lesson learned on this trip was to allow more time through security and plan a
longer layover. At least I was able to buy my coveted bottle of water
to take on the plane and Ed could charge his cell phone.
I think I had forgotten that Ed told me before we left
that our flight home was on a smaller plane.
I looked out the window and saw what I like to call a “choo choo
plane.” The first thing that came to
mind was a vision of the pilots running down the runway with their feet through
the bottom of the plane like the Flinstones used to run in their car. Really?
Hacking a lung on this plan may cause turbulence! On the left side of the plane was a row of
one seat and then on the right side, there were two seats.
Ed and I sat down and then a lady sat down in the seat
across the aisle from me. Yes, Ed took
the window seat. Anyway, this lady sat
down and I looked over and she had a mask on.
Seriously? She is in the wrong
seat. I tried not to cough but my first
bought came on and seconds later, she hit the flight attendant call button and
within minutes, she was moved. Sorry
mask lady, I couldn’t help it. I caught
a foreign bug. This was the last that I
remember of this flight because after that airport workout, I slept the entire
2 hour flight. I felt like I had seen both
Joan and Jenny in the same day (personal trainer and massage therapist).
Finally, we were home!
I was never so happy to see Sky Harbor ever!! Since we flew into Terminal 2, we had no
trouble getting our luggage. No,
Terminal 2 is not a runway……just a really small terminal. Love it!
We ended up having to wait about 30 mintues for our ride because, get
this, we were EARLY! About half an hour
early! They really know how to build
extra time into flight schedules!!
Continental was pretty prepared for this increase in security…..we have
a new love for this airline! We left
Amsterdam about an hour and a half late and we arrived in Phoenix a half an
hour early.
What a day!! I am
making notes for the blog now and I can’t wait to get home to my own bed, my
dog, cough medicine and hours of sleep!
No work until Monday and a massage tomorrow.
I had a blast on this trip but home is always a great
place to be. Just like last time, I will
be catching up on the blog after my trip has ended.
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