3:55pm – They called our name for the Denver flight! We are finally boarding a plane!! Woo-hoo! Oh sure, the reason it was delayed was because of mechanical difficulties prior to the last flight to Des Moines, but at this point, it’s better than watching the news for another two hours.
4:20pm (GMT) – roughly anyway, we landed in Denver. Something finally went right! We were only about 30 yards from where our next flight is leaving from. Lesley put our name in for standby on the earlier flight to LAX and we made it. Only one thing, we weren’t sitting together. Robby was NOT happy about that but it ended up working out quite nicely. He was sitting in the seat directly behind me. He was only two people and a narrow aisle away from Momma. The best part was that he landed in the seat immediately next to the same lady he sat by on the flight into Denver. She took care of him like you wouldn’t believe! For her efforts, she got her ear talked nearly clean off!
We landed in LAX about 7pm local time or whatever they call it, 9 o’clock farm time. I tried to sleep a little on the flight but to no avail. I AM TIRED. LAX is B.I.G.! Man, what chaos. We started walking in an attempt to find our boarding gate. We’re exhausted from lugging around 400 lbs of carry on bags in an airport the size of Des Moines proper.
We finally got on a shuttle bus that did so many turns and tight curves that I felt like I was on the silly silo. I was standing on the bus right up front by the driver. The guy was pulling out in front of cars and other buses, cutting across 5 lanes of traffic and, I kid you not, nodding off at the stop lights! I kept a keen eye on that boy. So after sleepy got us to terminal 2, we had absolutely no idea what to do next. If it wasn’t for Lesley, I would likely still be in LAX next Christmas yet. I’d give up and just get a job here.
It is now 9:30 freaky California time. We ate some food from Wolfgang Pucks. Overpriced airport food but I was hungry. We are now waiting at gate 28 for our Beijing flight, only 3 more hours to go.
The people watching is still fantastic. The only real difference that I can see from earlier today is DSM and Denver is that everyone looks frazzled now. Lesley said I look mad tired too and I don’t doubt that for a second. One other observation – people can sleep in some crazy positions.
Love this. I can see Ted becoming the Tom Hanks character that lived in the airport for years because of his Visa being revoked/invalidated. For anyone reading this that doesn't know my brother, He WOULD do it, too.
ReplyDeleteDid you see anyone famous? When I flew through LAX Sarah Jessica Parker walked right by me (she's tiny) and I saw a well schackled inmate in and orange jumpsuit handcuffed to two uniformed policemen disembark a plane, get re-handcuffed to two diffrent uniformed policement and escorted off down the terminal. I was sitting right in front of them waiting to get on the plane they had just gotten off of. Creepy weird.
I bet the lady that shared Rob's row had the DAY OF HER LIFE.