New Orleans, LA is where we spent last weekend for an enchanting wedding reception in City Carousel Park. (i say wedding reception because we missed the ceremony due to an extremely delayed flight.) The story is as follows...
On Friday afternoon we were supposed to leave Hartford, bound for New Orleans, with a short layover in DFW. Much to our dismay, we learned our flight was delayed 3 hours, which conveniently meant we were going to miss our connecting flight to NOLA. Okay, not that bad. I could deal with that. My family could pick us up, we could stay the night, and head out first thing in the morning. We made it to DFW airport where a very cordial gate agent informed us the earliest flight she could confirm us on the next day wasn't until 4:50...arrival 6:15. Eh hem...the wedding was at 7:00. Okay. Fine. I'm some how still managing to deal, and laugh, as I watch my poor, delirious, exhausted child walk across the nasty carpeted airport floor in his pj bottoms attempting to chase after a sleeping woman's small, brown, carry-on bag saying, "puppy, woof! puppy!!". Ah, honey. Come on. Let's go get our suitcase and go to Grandma and Grandad's. It's time for night night. We ALL need night night.We made it to baggage claim, and...yep, you guessed it. No suitcase. We go to the claims desk, the baggage guy types in our number and informs us they are "holding" our bag for the 6:00 a.m. flight to New Orleans in the morning.
Me- Excuse me, holding? But, we're not on that flight...or the next one...or the next one...or the next one. What if we never make it to New Orleans?
Bag Guy- Well, we have to send your bag to New Orleans because that was the original code.
Me- But we are here...our bag is here...in this airport...where we are...and we can't have it? All of my son's things are in that bag. We could be here for almost 20 hours with nothing?
Bag Guy- Call this 1-800 number for help.
Keith- My son's medications are in that bag. We need his medications! (eh...Vitamin D counts, right?)
Bag Guy- Call this 1-800 number for help.
Me- I thought new security policy stated that luggage cannot be sent on a flight unless the passenger was also confirmed on the flight?
Bag Guy- Call this 1-800 number for help.
They held our bag for ransom, and we left the airport empty handed. I wasn't dealing well anymore. All ability to deal went out the window with Bag Guy. All coping gone when some dude told us that he had been calling that 1-800 number for 5 hours without speaking to anyone. Dealing was done. I was done. Isaac was conked in the backseat. And, well, at least Grandma and Grandad were thrilled to see us.
Thankfully my family rescued us, fed us, sheltered us, took us shopping for essentials, and then drove us back to the airport where we flew to NOLA, reunited with our luggage, did a super quick spruce up, and showed up for the reception. Whew! Oh, my NOLA!!
The End.
p.s. Let me say that we did eventually call that 1-800 number where I was informed our suitcase was assigned a recycled bag number with the name Linda Overton...that in the system, our bag would not be scanned and changed to our name until it arrived in New Orleans...AND...that in times of extreme weather, they don't worry about security and they just concern themselves with moving passengers and bags. HELLO!!! I sure hope some bad person is not reading this blog because...HELLO...that is really insane. Plus, once in NOLA, our bag sat in baggage claim, was not scanned in the appropriate 90 minute window, and one of Keith's family members just drove up there and grabbed it. Any Joe Shmoe could've grabbed our bag and it didn't even have our name assigned to it in the system! There are so many things wrong with this!!!!
Okay...I have purged. Enjoy these great pics!
5 comments:
Love it! Loved that we got to selfishly enjoy your traumatic situation, love that we can put our total trust in our wonderful Homeland Security system, love the carousel pics (who won the race, Bert or Mary?), love all the Seersucker!
What great pictures you captured! The one of the Dane sisters turned out so nice!
It was so nice to see ya'll back to back weekends! What a blessing! The arrival to the weekend was less than ideal as per your writings...but turned out good: time with both your family and our family! Not too much longer before you will be closer to the South and it will happen more often (the visits, not the travel difficulties)...yea!!
Forgot to say that I love the pic of Isaac on the plane. It seems he is about to take matters in his own hands. Really, can you blame him?
I hate that it was over all too soon, but I loved the great memories!! I find myself still rocking from side to side, when "standing still" as if I still had our baby boy in my arms!! PS.. Please let everyone know that I'm NOT sporting a new hairstyle, but had been totally ravaged by the prewedding showers & NOLA humidity!!! Thank goodness there are soooo many other things to love about the South!! Love to all, Mia
Love the HAT.
Always use the inefficiency to your advantage. Ask Keith about entire Ski outfits paid for by the airline for the whole family because our luggage was delayed with a snow storm.
You found out isaac can stay up till midnite 2 nites in a row. That will come in handy during college.
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