Well, it was Friday the 13th and Zach and I decided to push our luck.... on TRAVELING. Having a tire pop on our plane while landing from the Bahamas, losing all of our luggage and the airline losing our reservations in Alaska, getting rammed into a barbed wire fence by a dying horse in the Dominican Republic, having to sleep with complete strangers in Italy, being completely separated from my group on the flight to Europe, and sleeping in a hotel decorated with live roaches should have taught me that my luck with traveling doesn't normally play in my favors. But we rolled the dice anyway.
Our original plan was to leave for Atlanta and arrive at 10pm on Saturday but depart again for Honduras at 9 (but since we had the customs thing... we need to be at the airport shortly after 6am). If you're quickly trying to do the math in your head... it's not a long layover. And I'm not sure if we could have hand picked less visitor friendly hours. Since Zach and I were not doing much on Saturday, he did what he does best: researched, and tried a few different routes for extending our time at home. Now Zach and I purchased travelers insurance which we had hoped would cover a change of flight but we found out that this was far from truth. To switch our flights to a Friday flight would cost $200 each (no thanks) and to an earlier flight on Saturday would be $500 each (never). However, he did find that if we called 24 hours in advance of our departure time, we could be put on a list that would give us a possibility of flying stand by. Boom! That was our in.
Instantly we began to look up flights and like gold, there was one leaving at 1 am on Saturday. This would put us home at 8am Saturday and leave us with a 25 hr layover. Yes please!!! We couldn't stop ourselves from planning things that we would do with our family during all that superfluous amount of time. Well... we called some friends and scheduled for them to pick us up about 4 on Friday to have some dinner in L.A. and then off to our midnight flight. Like clockwork (literally), the 24 hour mark hit and we called up to get ourselves on that list! Much to our chagrin, we were put on a 2-3 hr waiting call back list. That put us right at the time we were supposed to get picked up. Sure enough, 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave, Zach got the call and the lady told us that she couldn't put us in the system because the plane was not in the same class as our original flight. Zach asked if we could move to another earlier flight and she said she couldn't get us in anywhere. He thanked her and hung up. Hung up folks. That is the important part. We waited 2 hrs and were now left with unanswered questions and hearts broken. Zach, with a face completely covered in sorrow told me the news. I asked if he tried to find out why they told us this was a possibility and now they are saying it isn't but he said "honestly, I felt so flabbergasted by her news, that I hung up out of disbelief." And he was SO sad... he wore it on all parts of his face as we spoke. I called back to find out that the wait list had moved up to 6-10 hours!!!!!!!! while Zach furiously looked online for other numbers to call.
We finally got on another waiting list that was only 3 hours long but decided that in the meantime, we were just going to head to the airport. I mean, if we are there and seats are available.... right? But this did mean we were risking being in the airport 14 hours early. Anyway, cut to the ending: we were at dinner when I got the call from the airline. I explained the situation and it hardly took any finagling before we were on the list. We got to the airport 3 hours earlier and praise the Lord we did, because "the list" had about 30 people on it and the check in board said that there were ZERO seats available. Thank you to the 7 who did not check in to the flight, for it is by them that we were able to sneak on! It was 1 am, and we were headed home to the best layover either of us has ever had. Coach picked us up from the airport and took us to the Grays for a hot breakfast and a solid nap (since Zach and I only got a few 20 minute sleep sessions in on the plane ride). Then, it was pool time, followed by lunch, and dinner at my house with Parker and the girls, a sleepover, and then a midnight gathering at wafflehouse with Zach's family all before we had to get back to the airport.
From there, it was smooth sailing... except that our luggage was sent on the wrong flight and we had to intercept it and recheck it in with hardly no time to spare. Oh, and that our second plane was small enough to fit inside of Evan's old hot wheel carrier. But the Lord was with us and our adventure started out with the loveliest of surprises.
Our original plan was to leave for Atlanta and arrive at 10pm on Saturday but depart again for Honduras at 9 (but since we had the customs thing... we need to be at the airport shortly after 6am). If you're quickly trying to do the math in your head... it's not a long layover. And I'm not sure if we could have hand picked less visitor friendly hours. Since Zach and I were not doing much on Saturday, he did what he does best: researched, and tried a few different routes for extending our time at home. Now Zach and I purchased travelers insurance which we had hoped would cover a change of flight but we found out that this was far from truth. To switch our flights to a Friday flight would cost $200 each (no thanks) and to an earlier flight on Saturday would be $500 each (never). However, he did find that if we called 24 hours in advance of our departure time, we could be put on a list that would give us a possibility of flying stand by. Boom! That was our in.
Instantly we began to look up flights and like gold, there was one leaving at 1 am on Saturday. This would put us home at 8am Saturday and leave us with a 25 hr layover. Yes please!!! We couldn't stop ourselves from planning things that we would do with our family during all that superfluous amount of time. Well... we called some friends and scheduled for them to pick us up about 4 on Friday to have some dinner in L.A. and then off to our midnight flight. Like clockwork (literally), the 24 hour mark hit and we called up to get ourselves on that list! Much to our chagrin, we were put on a 2-3 hr waiting call back list. That put us right at the time we were supposed to get picked up. Sure enough, 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave, Zach got the call and the lady told us that she couldn't put us in the system because the plane was not in the same class as our original flight. Zach asked if we could move to another earlier flight and she said she couldn't get us in anywhere. He thanked her and hung up. Hung up folks. That is the important part. We waited 2 hrs and were now left with unanswered questions and hearts broken. Zach, with a face completely covered in sorrow told me the news. I asked if he tried to find out why they told us this was a possibility and now they are saying it isn't but he said "honestly, I felt so flabbergasted by her news, that I hung up out of disbelief." And he was SO sad... he wore it on all parts of his face as we spoke. I called back to find out that the wait list had moved up to 6-10 hours!!!!!!!! while Zach furiously looked online for other numbers to call.
We finally got on another waiting list that was only 3 hours long but decided that in the meantime, we were just going to head to the airport. I mean, if we are there and seats are available.... right? But this did mean we were risking being in the airport 14 hours early. Anyway, cut to the ending: we were at dinner when I got the call from the airline. I explained the situation and it hardly took any finagling before we were on the list. We got to the airport 3 hours earlier and praise the Lord we did, because "the list" had about 30 people on it and the check in board said that there were ZERO seats available. Thank you to the 7 who did not check in to the flight, for it is by them that we were able to sneak on! It was 1 am, and we were headed home to the best layover either of us has ever had. Coach picked us up from the airport and took us to the Grays for a hot breakfast and a solid nap (since Zach and I only got a few 20 minute sleep sessions in on the plane ride). Then, it was pool time, followed by lunch, and dinner at my house with Parker and the girls, a sleepover, and then a midnight gathering at wafflehouse with Zach's family all before we had to get back to the airport.
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