Technical difficulties

WARNING: This is a pretty long blog entry, so you might not want to read it all in one sitting.

This is the illustrated story of all the stupid things that happened to me while traveling back to Utah from Florida. It starts out with a happy family activity and ends with an explosion (of shampoo). Our whole family minus one went to see Wall-E together before I went to the airport. That was fun. We were all spread out in one row--5 little kids and 11 adults (there would've been 12, but Melanie's husband had to work), with a couple we didn't know right smack in the middle of us. We thought they would want to move after we sat down, but they just stayed where they were and even passed treats down from one side of the family to the other. The kids behaved really well, except for little Joseph trying to escape out the theater exit once. After the movie, we all gathered in front of the theater and everyone hugged me goodbye. Little Amy started to cry, which made Melanie and me cry too. Then Mom and Dad and Amy took me to the airport. We got there in plenty of time, so we shopped for awhile in the gift shop at the front of the airport and then they saw me off at the security check. After waiting at the gate for awhile and wondering why we weren't boarding yet, an airline employee announced that something was wrong with the plane's hydraulics and a part would need to be flown in from Atlanta and installed in the plane before it could take off. Apparently, the landing gear won't work properly without hydraulics, which is a kind of a big problem.

There was another flight leaving at 7:00, but there was no way to get us all on it, so people with international connections got first priority, and then we all got in line so they could rebook us. While waiting, I called Dad and told him what was going on, in case they needed to come back and get me. The airline was actually pretty quick about getting people through the line and tried to be as accomodating as possible. I was rescheduled for a flight the next morning and was offered a hotel, but I told them I would just stay with my parents another night. They also gave me $14 in meal vouchers that could only be used at restaurants in the Jacksonville Airport. I should have asked them if they could upgrade me to First Class for free, since I didn't need a hotel, but I didn't think of it at the time. Luckily, Dad, Mom, and Amy went to Walmart from the airport, so it wasn't too far for them to pick me up. The airline actually sent my suitcase to Baggage Claim, so I could take it with me overnight. Sometimes you have to leave your luggage and hope it shows up at your final destination, so I appreciated having my bag. I didn't mind staying another night, because I got to go swimming with Jenni, Chad, Jacob, Benjamin, Levi, Johnny, Liz, Joseph, Miriam, Amy, and Mom. It was pretty crowded in there, but fun.

The next morning, I got up early and Dad took me to the airport. I didn't eat anything before I left, so I could use my vouchers and get free breakfast from the airport. My first flight was on time and pretty smooth, although I had to sit in the middle seat between two big guys. I headed for the airport bathroom after landing in Atlanta, and while in the stall, noticed that the zipper on my jeans was broken. After examining it, I saw that one of the zipper teeth was bent at an odd angle. I thought if I could straighten it out, maybe I could reattach the zipper and get it to work properly again. Being the intelligent college graduate that I am, I tried to bite it and bend it back in place. The zipper tooth didn't budge at all, but my tooth did. Biting the prong made a tiny chip in my left front tooth. It's not really noticeable when you look at it, but I can feel it with my tongue. Yes, I'm a smart one. At least I was wearing a long enough shirt to cover my broken zipper.

I had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta, so I got food, browsed some shops, and read a book that was not very good, but passed the time. My flight ended up delayed because of bad weather, so we boarded late and then sat on the plane for awhile, waiting for the rain to ease up so we could take off. About half way through the flight, I started coughing and couldn't stop. I think the guy next to me was sorry he was sitting there. I drank a bunch of water, took some medicine, and ate a couple of cough drops before my coughing finally subsided. Because of drinking so much water, I had the wonderful experience of using the airplane bathroom. Nothing like going to the bathroom in a tiny tin box up in the sky.

After the plane landed, I got my luggage (hooray, it wasn't lost!) and headed for the shuttle bus that would take me to the long-term parking lot. I got to my car, paid for parking, and drove straight to work instead of going home. I got there around 7:30, and managed to stay for three hours before I was just too tired and had to go home, even though I still had to work about thirty hours in the next two days (I actually managed to do it, but I was really tired on Sunday). When I got home, I opened my suitcase to start unpacking, and noticed that things seemed a little damp. I opened the front zipper, and there was shampoo all over inside it. It's a good thing I had it in a separate compartment, because I had a bunch of music in the main part of the suitcase that would've been ruined. For some reason, only one shampoo bottle exploded and the others were fine.

Well, that was my "ordeal" getting home. Nothing really bad happened, just some little annoying things to make my travel experience more interesting.