Getting There is Half the Battle, Part 2

Wednesday, June 27th

The wake up call came at four and I seriously felt like I had only been asleep for ten minutes. I didn’t want to wake up Lili until the last possible moment, so I slipped out of bed and into the shower. My back was so stiff from sleeping on the floor, but the hot water really helped. When I got out the shower I got dressed and then got everybody else up. Grandpa was grumpy and complained that someone was snoring. It was him! But Mom just said, “Sure, it was me.” How we do appease those we love.

After the troubles getting into Dallas the night before, I thought I ought call United and check on our flight status. My hunch proved valid—our flight to San Francisco was canceled. Mom and I had a little pow wow and decided that we should go on to the airport to see what the airline could do. I fed Lili and when I picked her up to get her ready I realized she had wet the bed. It’s wicked of me, but I was sort of proud of her considering that La Quinta had been less that helpful.

With everyone dressed and ready, we headed to the lobby to wait for our cab. It was raining, but nothing too bad, so I was confused as to why our flight was canceled. The cab took about twenty minutes to get there and in the meantime I made everyone eat something from the breakfast buffet. Everyone else had fruit and yogurt (or juice in Lili’s case), but I found make-it-yourself waffles with a Texas shaped maker—yay! I love shaped waffles. I’m easy to entertain.

The cab arrived and we all piled in. I kept my death grip on Lili all the way to the airport. The drive was much shorter than the previous evening and before we knew it we were standing in the packed United terminal. The line was practically out the door for international check in, so we put the luggage up near the front of the line and staked Grandpa out in a wheelchair to watch it.

All around us were people using there cell phones to make other plans for our canceled flight. That is the big head smacking part of the whole trip—we didn’t bring our cell phones. I asked Mom if she was bringing hers and her response was, “What for?” I charged mine up to take just in case, but forgot it in the final rush. This would come back to bite us in the butt multiple times. This was already the second.

We ended up waiting for two hours in line. During the wait I kept checking on Grandpa and trying to entertain Lili. She was actually really good. We finally got to the counter and told the woman we had to get to Beijing. She typed a bunch of stuff and told us we couldn’t get out of Dallas for two days. My stomach literally dropped. Mom immediately told her that was unacceptable and so for the next two hours we stood at the counter as they tried to find a way to get us to Beijing. They tried everything and finally came up with what sounded like an annoying, but last resort plan. We would fly on American to Atlanta at noon, change airlines and fly to Los Angeles, change airlines again and have a ten hour layover, and then fly Air China to Beijing at 1:50 in the morning, arriving in Beijing in time to start our tour. We got ready to bustle off to the American terminal, ahh, but not so fast—Mom’s ticket wouldn’t print.

Another 45-minutes and five employees later, we were on a bus to the American terminal where we had to stand in yet another never ending line. There were several kiosks for self-check in, which ironically required four airline employees to work on, while on two were checking in other passengers. I asked one of the self check guys if he could just check out tickets to make sure when were on the flight. He told me to wait in line. Two hours later we made it to the front of the line where the airline representative proceeded to tell us that they had no reservation or room for us on the Atlanta flight. Now up to this time, I had been really positive, but that ticked me off. I made some comment about wishing that they could have just checked like we asked two hours before and the lady said that they had to help people with self-check. And before I could even stop the words from coming out of my mouth I said, “Then you really shouldn’t call it self-check, should you?”

The lady then told us that we would have to go back to the United terminal and have them straighten the mess out. Mom and I decided not to drag Grandpa, Lili, and the suitcases all over the airport again, so she went to get things sorted out and I stayed with them.

By this time Lili was tired of being in her stroller, so I took her out and let her play with one of the suitcases. I guess my daughter is simple like I am, because it amused her for over an hour. The lady I had snapped at came by and apologized, as did I. After some sweet potatoes, I walked Lili around the terminal for about an hour until she was ready for a nap. While she slept in her stroller, I read a little and then Grandpa and I played Farkel. Three hours after she had left, Mom returned.

I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I could tell she was about to flip out. She told me we were on standby for Chicago at four and confirmed on a flight to Beijing at noon the next day. If we didn’t make it on the Chicago flight, we would take an early morning flight to Chicago arriving in time to make our Beijing flight.

I made the call that we should get back to the United terminal and get some food. On the way, Mom told me that she was so angry because most everyone else on our San Francisco flight had been rebooked on a flight that left an hour later, but United hadn’t rebooked us because we weren’t considered priority.

We got checked in and finally got to check out luggage before setting in for some much needed McDonalds. It was three by this point and we hadn’t eaten since the hotel. So my quarter pounder tasted extra yummy!

After lunch, Mom wanted me to call Larry, somehow hoping he could straighten the whole mess out. I knew I needed to call him to have him get in touch with the tour company to tell them we wouldn’t be on our expected plane. Larry tried to help as best he could, but after several back and forth phone calls, nothing had really changed.

I snuck off with Lili to find a place to nurse her. We found a little abandoned spot behind some chairs and while she nursed I watched the rain fall outside. When we got back to the gate, Mom was frantic because she couldn’t find me. We had made it on to the afternoon Chicago flight! Yay! I called Larry and asked him to see if he could find us a hotel room.

We boarded a few minutes later and Liliana soon fell asleep. I watched a little of the Office when they showed (Phyllis’s Wedding for all you Office fans like myself) and napped a little afterwards. Two hours later landed in Chicago.

Once on the ground, we got our luggage and I called Larry. Because so many Chicago flights had been canceled, all the hotels in Chicago were booked. We were on our own. A very nice monk (who looked like my stepfather, according to my grandfather with one eye—so, not really) suggested we stay at his seminary, but it was two hours away.

We decided to go to the United counter to make sure we were confirmed on the flight the next day and see if we could check the luggage and find someplace for Grandpa to sleep. We were confirmed, but they wouldn’t let us check our luggage or get boarding passes or leave the ticket area until the next morning. I then explained that my grandfather was 90 years old and asked if they had a room or a cot or even just a blanket so he could lie down. Nope. Since our flights were screwed up due to weather they weren’t responsible for anything.

We wandered the ticketing area until we found some benches. Mom staked them out while Grandpa and I bought dinner. Forty dollars for three sandwiches and three bottles of water. Awesome. After dinner we tried to get Grandpa and Liliana to sleep. Lili passed out in her stroller. I was restless so I walked around and discovered that the next terminal over had cots, pillows, and blankets. But they were all being used by a group of teenagers and no one was willing to give theirs up for my Grandfather. So he stretched on a bench with a sleep mask on. Mom and I took turns watching the luggage and Lili. Mom took first shift, so I tried to sleep on the floor. It was a restless night, with me having to take Grandpa to the bathroom about every two hours. I think the only one who slept well was Lili. After my shift, I passed out again on the floor and was so tired that actually got some sleep.