Monday, March 03, 2008

Return Flight

Yesterday I flew back to Colorado after a week of meetings in South Carolina. It was a long day to say the least. I drove up to meet Luke at his Uncle Allan’s in Lady Island, SC. (Despite the name, I didn’t hear or see any sirens.) We went out to lunch with Allan, Woody and Carolyn. After spending a little time at a park in nearby Beaufort, Luke and I left them and drove the 135 miles to Columbia airport. We arrived in plenty of time.

After going through security, we just sat in the big rocking chairs at CAE and watched planes land and take off followed by a supper of BBQ and hotdog. I had the BBQ sandwich as Columbia doesn't have hotdogs like this. Our flight from Columbia was one of those puddle jumpers to Washington DC. You actually walk on the tarmac to board.

As it neared the time to board, Luke and I went downstairs and saw where the flight was delayed from a 7:15 departure to a 7:50 departure. This meant we would have 30 minutes to make our connection in DC.

If you have ever flown into Dulles, you know they have those crazy people movers. I knew we would fly into one terminal and then have to take one of them to another. The timing didn't look right. But we would try none the less. I asked Luke if he was ready to run.

As we landed our flight to Denver was already boarding. We deplaned first and Luke did a good job of running through terminal A up some stairs to just make a crazy people mover. His little legs were churning like I never seen before. The only problem is that this people mover was going to terminal C and our flight to Denver was D-5. We could have waited for a D terminal people mover but it didn't leave for another 5 minutes. It was one of those quick decisions and knowing I could run from C to D, we jumped on board as the driver was just closing the door.

At C, we got off the people mover and ran again. Luke started to tire so I carrying him leaving only one set of footprints in the sand... er, carpet. I am not in shape and running while carrying my carry-on, Luke's and a 45+ lb little boy wore me out. I had to set him down and walk, catch my breath and try it again… 2X. We made it to our gate with 8 minutes to spare.

When we got to Denver, we waited a long time for our bags not knowing if they made it for not. It was taking like forever for the bags to arrive at baggage claim - a long time even for DIA. After 30 minutes, I took Luke to where Robin was waiting in the car and went back down and they still hadn’t arrived. I asked a foursome of baggage handlers standing off to the side if there was a strike that I didn't know about. They chuckled and said it was just because a number of flights arrived at the same time. I didn’t buy that reasoning and wondered if it was one of those non-strike strikes but waited nonetheless. But they finally came and Robin took us home. (A co-worker spent the night and stayed with Jack and Drew.)

We got to bed at 2 am or 4 am to Luke and my bodies. I need a nap and trip to chiropractor.

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