Wednesday, May 5, 2010

3, 2, 1....1, 2, 3..... What the heck is bothering me?

Last week little miss and I were lucky enough to spend some time with my mom in Florida. She has an RV and they were camped on a beach..... which equals heaven to me. I was able to spend several hours on the beach each day while my mom soaked in as much time with little miss as she could. And they both loved every moment of it.

Each day out on the beach I kept thinking about how peaceful I was feeling. I was so relaxed listening to the waves, feeling the sand between my toes and the sun on my face. Feeling the ocean breeze and smelling the salty air and my wonderfully smelling sun tan lotion. I was being renewed and when I return home I would be ready to handle my "real" life.

That is until my plane ride home......

Now this is little misses 7th round trip flight which is kinda a lot for a 19 month old I would say and she really handles flying like a champ. And a lot of these flights I have taken her by myself which is no simple task. But, I have learned a few tricks or two on the best way to fly with a baby/toddler. With the rise in prices and charges I am used to the plane being full and having a row of people cringe when they see that we are the only seats left. *CHEESE*

I was scheduled to leave at 6:30 and arrive home just 2 hours later. First we find out that our plane has been delayed for 20 minutes. Which is no big deal, that gives me a few more minutes to get little miss ready and diaper changed for the ride so I don't have to worry about it as long as she doesn't stink.... if you know what I mean.

We board the plane and the flight isn't full and only one person is brave enough to sit with us. We have room to let her flail around and move if she wanted to. This was looking like a great start to a great flight home. But then we begin to take off and something smells like it is burning. Like one of my 13 year old students is burning his sisters baby doll....... it stinks!!! I am looking around the plane to see if anyone is registering this smell but no one else seems to be noticing. Maybe its just me? Or maybe a bird flew into the landing gear and that's what I am smelling. The smell went away only for 15 minutes and then it came back with a vengeance. This time everyone seemed to be smelling it and trying to hide their faces in the clothes to hold off the odor.

Our captain gets on the speaker and informs us that he has been hearing that we are complaining of a burning smell and that for our safety we must make an emergency landing at the closest airport in Charleston, SC. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!? We all begin to panic to ourselves.

We land safely and are followed into the gate by 4 fire trucks aiming and ready to put us out in case we just happen to explode. Once we stop, firefighters in heat suits board the plane and walk to the back. Immediately the passengers take out our phones and cameras to take pictures of them.

They tell us to leave the plane, take all of our belongings and prepare to sit and the gate inside the airport for a few hours until we can get this plane back on the ground. You hear of murmur of "Oh I am not getting back on this thing" going around the cabin.

We walked off the plane at 7:45pm.

We were told that a new plane was coming to rescue us and should be there at about 10:30pm and we should be in the air by 11:15. All I can think about is what am I going to do with this toddler for 3 more hours...... She was so full of energy and wanted to run all over the place. And run we did while watching the clock.

10:30 came and went...... 10:45....... 10:55 and now a line of fellow passengers are lining up along the windows watching each plane fly in to see if it just might be ours. 11:00....... 11:10..... and then at 11:15 then let us know that our flight had finally just left and wouldn't be getting to Charleston until 12:15.

3, 2, 1...... 1, 2, 3..... WHAT THE HECK IS BOTHERING ME? I was trying to take some advice from Papa Winslow, the dad from Family Matters and just like it didn't work for him.... it did not work for me. Little miss was tired, aggravated, uncomfortable, miserable, grumpy and everything I was feeling but without the filter.

Our plane finally arrived around 12:30 and we were quickly in the air. The pilot said that he was given instructions to fly the plane like he stole it and we all said an amen! We were finally home and on the ground by 2:15am. Exhausted from our 2 hour flight that turned into 8 hours.

I am thankful that our safety was a priority for them and that they did send us a voucher for $100 off my next flight. So thank you Southwest Airlines for having great customer service and for caring more about people than time and your dollar.






4 comments:

  1. That made me stressed just by reading it!!! I am glad you and my tessie-messy made it back safely!!

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  2. Next time I ask you to stay and extra day JUST SAY YES!!!! Very nice for the 100.00 voucher
    from Southwest -

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  3. I agree. This gave me a little bit of anxiety. But when you said *CHEESE* I definately did my impression of you cheesing. HA!

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  4. hah well i think that your blog posts are always so cute and funny:) andI love to read them..
    I am along with every one else and I felt for yall.. especially beacuse I know how Tess can be when she gets bored *CHEESE* and I don't even know the half of what she was doing inthat airport I am sure.. beacuse at least she has a bunch of toys when I watch her:)

    anyways, glad you are safe.. &The 100 voucher is deff a plus!

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