Traveling Mercies, Part II

Posted on December 22nd, 2009 under Travel

Speaking French in France would have been helpful.   We accidentally bought toothbrushes and gum medication instead of toothpaste.   After Amanda and I left the hostel in the morning, we ended up at Charles de Gaul Etienne which we soon realized was not the same thing as Charles de Gaul airport.  No worries.  We had somehow ended up at one of the drop-off points for the airport shuttle, which we happily boarded.  Of course, it couldn’t be that easy.  After five minutes on the shuttle, Amanda got a bad feeling.  True enough, we were on our way to the Orly airport not Charles de Gaul!

By this point, the comfortable window of time before our flight was starting to shrink.  We flight was scheduled to leave in two hours and we were still in the middle of Paris, standing by the Arc de Triumph were we had exited the subway the first time.  We raced back to the subway cursing ourselves for not realizing you couldn’t fit an airport in a city.

We mapped out our route and checked every stop to reassure ourselves that we were heading in the right direction.  It’s bad if you’re lost and the clock is ticking, it’s even worse when you know exactly where you are.   The stops ticked by one at a time as our window of time was closing.  After what seemed like an eternity, we burst out of the train and ran madly through the airport.  Both of us stood in rapt anxiety as we waited through security.  It didn’t help that I looked so suspicious that the staff decided they needed to pat me down.  By this point the plane was boarding and both of us felt like we were honestly going to throw up.  I got out of security first and made a mad dash for the terminal (terminal 70: it was a long run).  By another act of providence our flight had been delayed an hour and a half (several more delays would follow, but we certainly had no complaints).  We boarded the plane with nothing to report except that the stewardess said she needed to search my carry-on luggage and pat me down (for the second time) because of “random” searches.

Amanda summed up the whole experience as a series hectic rushings around followed by long periods of waiting.  Our plan at this point was to get to Boston where we had a five hour layover before our last flight back to Philadelphia.  Five hours sounds like a safe window, but if we’d learned anything during this trip, it was that nothing is safe.  Our flight was delayed a total of three times, removing the “safe” from our “safe window.”

The flight was (thankfully) eventful.  During the last hour the stewardess moved us up to business class so we could exit the plane as quickly as possible to in order to catch our final flight.  This sounded like a good idea.

The plane landed and we were off.  However, we had to collect our baggage.  So we made burst out of the plane, scrambled through customs, and then just stood there at the baggage claim with everybody else waiting for our luggage come out on the conveyor belt.  During this wait, we heard our names called on the PA system.  We found out that our bags had not even made it on the plane.  Ok, this was good; this meant we could catch our next flight.  This sounded like a good plan, until we found out this flight was also cancelled.  By now the ridiculousness of our whole experience in Boston was unmistakable.  We had been moved up to business class in order to get off the plane as fast as possible to collect our (uncollectable) luggage with everyone else in order to run off to a (canceled) flight.

Still, we were unperturbed.  We were in the United States, things were looking up.  By now we both knew the drill and had taken up our post in the next line to wait in.  In this line I heard a man making the last call for any passengers on the flight to DC.  I live in Maryland, so getting to DC is even closer than Philadelphia.  To make (another) long story short, we made it onto this (also delayed) flight.

Amanda and I arrived in DC on time and back at my house sooner than we would have if we had made our original flight into Philadelphia.   Home at last!  Amanda got home in the early afternoon the next day.  God is good!  We certainly had practice trusting God and sure enough everything worked out.   Traveling mercies to anyone else traveling over the Christmas holiday.  Merry Christmas!

2 Comments

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  Hodge says on December 22nd, 2009

  I would have just bursted out laughing randomly several times during this ordeal. And used my frustration to spur my comedic wit

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  Amanda says on December 23rd, 2009

  this was a very accurate telling Kate! especially the absurdity of sprinting madly towards flights that no longer existed…and there were actually multiple times of hysteria and uncontrollable laughter as well as severe nausea – ah, the joys of travelling! we got through fine though praise be to God. thanks for letting me crash at your house and remaining so calm during our crisis!!

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