Unexpected detour!

HI everyone - We had had a wonderful last day with the Creeches. The trip had been perfect. On the last day, we all piled into the ferry and headed over to Gore Island to see the slave trade memorial and then back the guest house to listen the testimony of our driver, Jerome - fascinating and inspiring and then supper (from Cheryl) and then off to the airport at 10 p.m. We got there in plenty of time. We started standing in line at 10:20 after a tearful goodbye with Ken, Cheryl and Rachel. And then it started to unspool. You know those times when you should have seen it coming. First - the mosquitoes! Woa! Inside the terminal no less - we had not seen or felt anything like that - even in the bush. It was a good thing we had taken our malaria pills – on and off – sort of. I can’t think of a group of people that donated more blood in three hours than our group did.

Just after the opened the ticket counter (at 11:30 - not a good start) - the computer system for South African Airways crashed. At 1 a.m. we were still in line. Our flight was supposed to leave at 1:40 - we had lots of African time. The Mac's and Steckly's cleared with boarding passes through to Toronto - we were stuck in line with the most exasperating agent. I could tell he was thinking of things he could do to distract himself from working. Finally, at 1:30 we got our fake boarding passes and he smiled at us and told us we had lots of time – little did we know. We raced through the terminal - being directed into special offices for stamping - 2 exhaustive searches of our hand bags - we raced out the door to the bus only to be greeted by the Macs and Stecklys (what were they still doing here?) Turns out they were still waiting to be taken to the plane. Whew! Made it. Got to the plane and took our seats. The A340 Airbus was mostly full already having come from Johannesburg. They had already and had sat on the tarmac for 1.5 hours waiting for us. As I was taking my seat , I said very loudly (for the rest of the plane to hear) “Huge computer crash at the ticket counter" - most people seemed to believe me but some people looked like they were going to take us down to the cargo hold for a beating. So, we settled into our seats and got ready for departure. It was 1:40 a.m. I fell asleep and woke up .5 hour later only to stare at the screen in front of me with the same picture as had been there when I had fallen asleep - two ladders and a truck still attached at the hip to our airplane. We sat for another 1.5 hours as passengers slowly dribbled onto the plane - the bus dropping off a few at a time. I knew it was going to be close catching the Washington flight - we ended up leaving 1.75 hours late. Ever tried to sleep sitting up – beside my wife, Elvira? No, not going to happen. As we approached Dulles in Washington it was obvious we were slowing down. I never knew that a plane so full of people could fly so slowly. The pilot actually came on the intercom and said - "Look outside, this is the slowest approach at 10,000 ft. you will ever see." My watch read 7:10 - our flight was supposed to leave at 8:05. We are sitting in row 765 – (actually is was row 68) so disembarking was going to take a long time. But with hopes still high we raced down the ramp and yelled at the South African agents to let United know that we were on our way. They just smiled. We ran into that brick wall we call Customs. They did not share our angst – nor did they appreciate jokes about slow moving “agents” either. And yes, we had to reclaim our luggage, even though it had been checked through. Only in America. By now the Macs and Stecklys were well ahead of us - nowhere to be seen. I guessed that they had made the flight. We had to run through Terminal A- down the escalator - to the subway tram and over to Terminal C - up ramps, down more escalators and hallways - we lost Elvira at some point- a faint memory of "honey wait for me" could be heard - but Nathan and I were determined to stop that plane even if it meant I had to lay down on the tarmac and sacrifice my body - we had been held up for over 4.5 hours - they could wait a measly 15 minutes I reasoned. Frothing at the mouth from exhaustion, I climbed what I thought would be the last set of stairs - we were looking for C1 - easy - that should the first gate in the C Terminal, right? Like everything else that day/night - the designers of Dulles decided to place C1 at the far end - not first but the very last. *!!#$()?!. This only made the challenge even greater. I nearly knocked a poor woman over on another escalator and had two security guards eye me as I waved my fake boarding pass in their faces. I could hear Nathan behind me gasping - Elvira and Amy - lost somewhere between the 36th corner and 27th ramp. As I raced down the corridor C1 was in sight - I could see gloryland! It was there in sight but my breath wasn't. I slowed my pace just a bit only to see out of the corner of my eye a pink suitcase that seemed strangely familiar - no! Say it isn't so! And then I heard it...."Shink." I pressed the emergency stop button and ground to a halt - I could hear the screeching of brakes, smashing glass, and the strange hoarse wheezing of Nathan barreling down on me from behind. I dodged to the left only to see ALL of the Macs and BOTH Stecklys standing in line ...... at the, Customer Service Desk. Again I lost my sanctification. *&#$$%!!!. They had missed fight as well. Mac had that look again - the same look he had had as we sat in traffic outside of Dakar two nights before - bewildered, almost idiotic - well past the deer in the headlights. He was still panting and sweating, even though they had been standing still in line for over 15 minutes. The incursion had taken its toll on him as well. Like Amy said, "Dad, I got more exercise in that terminal than I had for the last two weeks."

It gets better. After regaining our composure, we began to explore our options. How could we get home, today? Then Customer Service dropped the "Little Fat Man" on us. They could not help us. I had no idea what that meant but they actually had the nerve to tell us that we had to go back to, yes you guessed it, Terminal A - believe it or not - (I know this is really hard to believe but I swear, all of this is true. (D.J. will verify it) to the very same spot we had just come from – in fact, I think we actually ran by it on our way to the abyss. Well, somewhat defeated by the delay, we rallied and decided to make the best of it. We did what most people would do - we went and ate lunch at 10:30. The burgers were good but Mac was still out of sorts and mispronounced Fudruckers a few times. After drowning our disappointment we sauntered slowly back to Terminal A, contemplating our fate. It took about 15 minutes to get there and wouldn't you know it - another long line, Customer Service was very busy today. We felt loved and really appreciated there in line - valued customers. Now think of it - working as a customer service rep in a place like that – you don’t meet satisfied customers. Would you want that job knowing that everyone who steps up has a story like ours. How many smiling faces would you see in line - how many people can't wait to hear "I'm sorry there are no more flights today." That thought had not even crossed my mind, yet.
I know this post had reached epic proportions but it’s not done yet. Mac and I took our turn. Phil had been able to get on another flight cause it was just he and Simon. Paul and I banished our wives to another dark section of the terminal cause you know what wives get like when they have gone well past the due date - they say all kinds of things that estrogen voice make real sense - not like men who just sort of beg for assistance. You should have seen Mac - I was so proud of him - he settled into a groove and almost laughed at one point. One of the problems was - where was our luggage? We had literally thrown it at some East Indian guy in the basement as we were running for the plane - I think his name was Nappu. Where were our 22 bags of luggage - had they gone on to Toronto? Well it turns out, as some of you know, if you don't board the plane but your luggage does, they have to sort through all of the luggage on the plane and remove yours. Sweet justice after all! They would have had to delay the plane and remove all 22 bags! Awesome. So, our lady behind the counter disappeared for 10 minutes trying to find our shirts, shoes, African trinkets, mealie meal, etc. Turns out it was “safe” in the basement with the baggage checkers. After peering at her screen for 5 more minutes and furiously typing on her keyboard, she looked up grimly and said to Mac - I have only 6 seats - going through Chicago - you might be home tonight by 7. At that point, I think he heard me whimper. For the first time all trip, I had no words. Anger swelled inside me. At that point I knew we were being had by the Big Corporation! I said loudly enough to be heard by all those smiling blue-suited women behind the counter - "We are just as much the responsibility of United as we were South African Airlines - that's what Star Alliance is committed to." There, I said it. I heard their pens fall, the smell of lawsuit in the air. Maybe, they just felt sorry for us. The head lady appeared two minutes later and smiled and said, "Would you consider a night on us at the local Marriott and leaving - all 10 of you tomorrow morning - on the same flight?"

So here we are sitting in the hotel lobby of the Marriott. It's actually quite nice. Coffee, donuts, air conditioning, hot showers yadda, yadda, yadda. We decided to call the local limousine service - Carolyn found the number and we are going on the tour of D.C. tonight - surprisingly inexpensive. Meal voucher and a nice room, “Yeesss”, as Jackson would say. What more could we ask for. Sorry this turned out to be a short story but it is all true. A wonderfully patient woman named Eileen helped us at the counter - her picture will be up on the blog later tonight. My special thanks to my son, Nathan; he has worked hard with me on this blog stuff - he makes it look good - does all the pics and stuff. Thanks. We miss you all and look forward to seeing you. For all those in church this morning, I really hope the videos worked out.

Love to all of you.