Airplane Drama

Who said airplanes were the fastest way to fly?

Our transportation adventure began when our flight was an hour late leaving Raleigh Durham on our way home for our second Christmas trip. They said that it was weather related but they also said they had a computer glich and problems not getting in the formation for takeoff. We arrived in Memphis and of course had missed our connecting flight. They said we could stay in the airport all day and wait and Adam told them, “Not with two little ones we can’t” so they rerouted us to Houston. We had 15 minutes to get at least a mile maybe two. We had already ran from our gate to the ticket office so Jack was tired and sat in the stroller. I carried Charlie as far as I could and then made Jack get out and run some more. He was such a good sport we ran and ran and made it just in time. We ran out of diapers because our airplane was too small and we had to gate check our bag that had diapers and spare clothes. Charlie had 2 blow outs and had to just be astinky baby. Instead of arriving in Salt Lake at 4:00, we arrived at 9:30 – a 13 hour trip. Our bag we had checked didn’t make it but they delivered it to my parents house in the middle of the night which was quite nice. That was the first leg.

On our trip home, we hoped it would be much less adventurous. I was going to be prepared so I packed 2 changes of clothes for Charlie and a pair for Jack, diaper, wipes and lots of snacks and toys to entertain on our short layover. The mean man at the ticket counter made us check that bag and pay $45 to check them. We expected to get back to Raleigh at 9:45 and then drive our 2-hour trip home so Adam could get some sleep before his first day of school. (He already missed the real first day which was Tuesday and so was going to have to register late and get permission from all his instructors. Our flight left and we landed in Memphis with no problems. Charlie decided not to sleep and was getting a little grouchy. Our plane took off and we were excited because we talked the person next to us into switching seats so Charlie could sit in his car seat. Charlie fell asleep and we were on the home stretch. Then after about 30 minutes of circling the airport, the pilot announced that there was a problem with the landing gear and we would have to return. When we landed the firetrucks were lined up and ready for us- that makes a person a little nervous. We had to de board and of course Charlie woke up. They found us a new plane which we boarded and they told us it would be midnight before we got to Raleigh. We took off again and wouldn’t ya know, we had the exact same problem- the doors on the landing gear wouldn’t close and we had to return to Memphis again. The firetrucks chased us down the runway again. This time, Jack had fallen asleep and we had to wake him up as we deboarded yet again. By now it was 11:00 p.m. and our boys and one other baby were the only children on the flight. We had to wait in the back of the line for 1 ½ hours so that they could tell us we were going to spend the night and could take a flight out in the morning. By now we had burned through the diapers from my purse and had zero diapers left since we had checked the bag with spare clothes and diapers. They said we could get our checked bags but we would have to wait another hour and fill out more forms, so we just went to the hotel. Adam took a midnight taxi to Wallgreens to buy some diapers and milk. The next morning we woke the boys up early and met up with our “friends” from our original plane ride and flew down to Atlanta. We had some minor problems with not finding the right gate and taxiing around the airport for 40 minutes but at least we were out of Memphis. We our now on our final leg home, Charlie fell asleep and was doing really well when he started coughing and threw up all over himself right before takeoff. We quickly grabbed his slightly less dirty onsie and I mopped up Charlie while Adam mopped up his carseat and the floor. We are hoping to get back to our car drive as fast as we can to Adams school so he can make it to the last few minutes of his last class and apologize profusely to all his teachers so they will still let him in their classes. That will make this leg a 26 hour tip! Needless to say, we have little desire to fly again anytime soon.