Believe me, when you hear the words, "Attention: passengers waiting for departure of flight #1353 to Raleigh/Durham, there will be a slight delay as we check a mechanical issue with the plane," it doesn't inspire confidence. That was only the beginning of the bad airplane karma we experienced on our recent trip to Duke. A half hour later we were told that a new plane may be required if the repairs couldn't be completed. Another hour passed until my slightly shaky legs carried me down the walkway and into the now
doomed fixed airliner.
Fast forward three hours and said airliner is now descending towards its intended North Carolina target. The only problem now is the plane is pitching violently with the ground rapidly approaching. Holding on tight to my seat, my mind envisioned a lack of runway, foam, slides, safety vehicles, you name it. Evidently I wasn't the only one thinking along those lines since three minutes later, our wheels made bumpy contact with the runway and the entire plane full of passengers erupted in cheers and clapping.
My appointment with Dr. Palmer went very well...too well for a transplant at this time. Yup, not terribly surprised but thought my increased IV usage might put me in my window again. The waiting game goes on.
The Monday Duke visit was to be followed by a Tuesday morning flight home but the entire state was bracing for an ice/snow storm. We checked our flights Monday night and already saw our flight was delayed. We woke up to ice coating the outside world and a cancelled flight. With nothing to do, we ventured out on the roads and hit the mall. It was like a ghost town--only a fourth of the stores were open. Native North Carolinians freak out when it snows (4 days later the kids were still out of school.)
Josh was able to squeeze in on an early Thursday morning non-stop flight but Rheid and I's best option was a longer 4:00 flight routing through Atlanta. How bad could that be, right? Well, our "plane of deliverance" had an issue with the baggage loading system and we were about an hour late taking off--we are not off to a great start. Then we landed in Atlanta and all but 7 of us deboard the plane. We wait until the fully-booked flight is finally seated and then...nothing. Finally the captain comes on the speaker and announces the airplane's fuel tank was mistakenly overfilled. He apologizes for the snafu and explains that the plane is now too heavy to take off and if we managed it, we would then be too heavy to land. LOVELY. So we now wait for the plane to be de-fueled and then refueled again. What started out to be a twenty minute delay turned into two hours of being stuck at the gate and unfortunately stuck in our seats as well. By the time we took off from Atlanta, the passengers trying to make connecting flights in Denver were livid. I just wanted to get home.
We finally landed in Denver over 3 hours behind schedule and because of that, there was no empty gate available for us. So we sat, again, on the tarmac waiting. By this time I was ready and willing to go down a slide just to get off the bloomin' airplane. Sheeesh! With the way our luck was going, we were lucky to be on the ground and not on the nightly news. I barely had any battery left on my O2 concentrator by the time we got to our vehicle. Thank heavens I made it.
The following week we celebrated Rheid's birthday by going out to eat at Bunz and lighting cupcakes afterwards.
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| Rheid hits the big 52. Love that guy. |
Tour Guide Sherri at St. Joseph Hospital
