Well, as always, you need to expect the unexpected when traveling.
The day started gloriously with the sun coming up as Kelly drove us to the airport. I even remarked that it’s beautiful early in the morning but that’s something that eludes me (getting up too early in the morning).
Usually, I am the one who has difficulties at the TSA screening since my fake knee always sets off the smaller screening so then I need to get patted down. The new renovations at the La Crosse airport include a full-body screening, which I usually pass successfully. But this time, something about Beth’s belongings sounded the alarm so she had to have a full body pat-down then they unpacked her meticulously packed backpack, yadda, yadda. When asked what triggered the alarm, the TSA woman indicated it was her money belt (which she had forgotten to throw into the plastic bin). What a hassle.
Got off the ground with no problems, arrived in Chicago with few problems except I banged my paper-thin skin on a metal hinge on the door on the rather small aircraft I was leaving and lots of blood quickly surfaced which required me to scramble for something to keep it from trailing down my arm so I’m stopping, swabbing, going until we get to a stand in which I thought there would be band aids (Beth packed some but they ended up at the bottom of her luggage after the TSA retrofit.
An unusually kind young man heard me ask the clerk if she had any band aids (she didn’t) and offered me the one (well, it was really two) that he had in his wallet. He said he had small kids. So I stemmed the bleeding and headed to our next gate for our flight to Miami.
The flight left on time, and as we neared Miami, we got diverted to Orlando to refuel because the Miami airport closed due to strong thunderstorms. There was a rush on the bathroom once the plane pulled up to the gate for refueling.
We stayed on the airplane for about an hour and a half before we finally left for Miami.
Because of the diversion, or so I think, the flight time for our connecting flight to Quito was pushed back from 6:22 pm – then to 6:45 pm – then to 6:50 pm – then to 7:20 pm. We boarded about 7:15 pm, got settled in and waited – and waited – and waited until around 9:30 pm – apparently waiting on a pilot from Medellin who apparently did not get through customs so the flight was canceled. Just flat-ass canceled. So we disembarked, only to have to stand in line until 2 pm to get “rebooked.”
Well, all three flights the next day (mind you, this is Friday morning) were booked so they put us on standby.
In the meantime, we checked the backpack in Chicago for the remainder of the trip because it was heavy (our plan was NOT to check anything) so now the backpack was checked and we couldn’t retrieve it. It had the charging cord for my laptop, and my laptop only had 10% power so there ya go – couldn’t post a blog at all.
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