Well That's a First!! - Kathleen

Hi.

I'm back.

Sorry for the disappearance, I really hope you didn't send out a search party. I've been in New Hampshire for the past week. My grandma died so we went up for her funeral. Your prayers, thoughts, and condolences are greatly appreciated. This post is going to be a bit different, kind of like a story-time. So just stick with me.

So on Wednesday, January 4th, we had a flight out of St. Louis to Baltimore at 8:30 am. We got to the airport on time, thanks to the help of our friends. They got up super early (like 5 am) to drive us so we all good to go.

Our flight out to Baltimore went well, there were some cool clouds. We caught our connection to Manchester and drove up to my grandpa's house. Everything went well, we had great weather.

The adventure started on the way back, yesterday. Our flight out of Manchester was set for 4:10 pm, so there was really no way we could miss the flight of our own fault. My family left my grandpa's house around noon because it takes an hour and a half to get to Manchester from Newport (where my grandpa lives) and we wanted plenty of time to eat lunch. I got there on time, had lunch, and walked around, got some snacks to eat on our two flights. The Manchester airport is not that big at all, like it's really small. It has two major hallways in an L shape with the security in the inside corner. Cute, but small.

Our plane landed, the passengers got off and the flight attendants did their little clean up. As this is going on, we get the news that there are some severe thunder storms in Chicago, which is where our plane is going. Great. Now we are delayed 40 minutes. We had a layover of an hour during which we were going to eat dinner. This delayed flight was going to cause us to miss our connection flight to St Louis. OK, we all thought, we can just take a later one that will get us home around ten. We were re-booked for the next flight out of Chicago to St Louis. We got on our plane, took off and everything was great. By now it is dark outside and we were all super tired from sitting in an airport for about 4 hours. It was a two hour 50 minute flight I think, but it felt like 5 hours.

We started to land. I knew that it was going to be rough, considering we were landing in a thunderstorm, but this was beyond anything I ever expected or imagined. There was a TON of turbulence and I saw lightning a few times. I had to shut my windows because I was starting to have a panic/stress attack, but the windows across from us were still open. You know when people take the pictures of the stars, they look like this:

Well, what was probably rain, looked like this except in a straight line horizontally. It was terrifying; I thought it was lightning gathering, that's how tired I was, I wasn't event thinking straight. Obviously, there were some crazy noises, and I have a WILD imagination, so mom told me not to make up reasons as to why the sounds were being made.

 So we landed and it was super busy. Like insane-ly busy. We were walking down the concourse to our next gate and we past one of the Arrival/Departure screens. All of the flights to St Louis were cancelled. The next flight was for 6 am the next day. I was on the verge of a panic/stress attack right now, and all of a sudden our flight is canceled, my dad is angry, and I have to stay in Chicago over night. (I've never done that before) I couldn't believe what was happening. I had no change of clothes, no hair brush, no toothbrush/toothpaste, no pillow, no blanket. On a very minor scale, I felt like I had an inkling of what it is like to be homeless. ON A VERY MINOR SCALE. We went to the Southwest desk, got out tickets for the 6 am flight and asked them about re-imbursements. They wouldn't give us anything for a rental car to drive 5 hours home, a hotel room for over night, or anything. I'm not trying to say anything about Southwest, I still love them, this was just our situation.

So we were walking down the concourse again, trying to find someplace to eat dinner. Then, right in the middle of the hallway, I broke down and had a panic attack. I had no control, I didn't know where I was sleeping, I didn't know what was happening. And everybody saw. That's one of the biggest fears: letting people see me at my weakest moments. And it continued all night. It was lovely. But luckily, I have great friends who help me through rough times. I actually told my friend all my problems and listened and just took off some of the burden.

While I was talking to her, my parents decided that we were going to spend the night in the airport in a room they set up with cots. We went and got some Potbelly's Subs, and sat in the cutest Food Court. They even had a Ben and Jerry's. So things were looking up! We stopped at the USO and they gave us some snacks to eat during the night and kind of helped us out a little. Unfortunately, they were only open until 9 pm so we couldn't spend the night. I would have loved to though, because MAN those sofa's looked amazing.

We went and found the room with the cots; it was actually really nice, it was big and open and had about 100 cots in it. There were lots of little walls and railings so you could find a little corner. We got three cots farthest away from the door and huddled down for the night. They gave us pillows and blankets (which were HUGE) and we snuggled up with our snacks and books. Yay!

We were doing OK! Now, I'm going to tell part of this story that I considered leaving out, but this just makes our whole situation a little bit funnier, at least now in hindsight. If this offends you, please remember that I don't mean for it to, and that I am not making fun of, or making light of anyone in this persons situation.

As we were going to sleep, a very angry, very drunk lady came into the room. She was swearing and yelling at people. It was interesting. From what I could piece together, she had had 4 glasses of wine on a flight, gotten off, and was waiting for her next flight. Somebody behind her at the gate was kicking the back of her seat. She starting getting in the persons face and the airline was forced to refuse to let her on the plane. Now she was angry at having to spend the night in an airport. The police tried to calm her down but she was not having it. My dad was talking to the police and she happened to be walking behind him. I heard her get angry at Dad and the police officer, and I broke down all over again.

I guess in the end, she got a martini, drank it, ate some chips the police officer gave her, and went to sleep which is a very anticlimactic end, but I'm OK with that.

I woke up several times throughout the night, but around three, my dad was talking to my mom. Our 6 am flight had been canceled due to snow and high winds, but he had booked us for a flight at 8:10 am. I went back to sleep and woke up around six. Dad and my sister, Olivia left for breakfast at Harry Caray's, so Mom and I cleaned up our area, took our stuff, and went to the restaurant. The breakfast they served was so good, and our waitress so nice, that I actually started to feel happy. We got on our flight a little late because the plane was delayed from its original place, but that was ok. Our pilot had actually arrived to the airport late because he was flying a delayed plane, so we left the airport like 30 minutes late. I didn't really care at this point because it was my last flight and I knew I was getting off in St Louis and going home, but I felt really bad for the people who missed their flights. I got squashed between two people, but I handled it; the flight was only 50 minutes. I ate some gummies and read my book. Before I knew it, we had landed and I was home!

It was such a crazy night I still can't believe that whole thing happened! I will be super grateful to curl up in my bed tonight, and I actually can't wait to do it!

Love you all!

Kathleen

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