Hey guys, hope you all had an amazing holiday season. We surely did.
December 12th, Bec and I left for Australia... "Left for Australia," that sounds so easy, so simple. Of course, nothing is that simple, at least when leaving from Kalispell, MT in December. The time for our plane's boarding came and went, with no stirring of gate agents. Apparently, it's not appropriate to inform passengers as to what is happening to their plane until they're GOOD and curious, as well as antsy, bored and a little or a lot worried about their connecting flights.
Once we were deemed worthy of receiving a flight update, we were informed that our flight
had been cancelled due to mechanical difficulties. This angered some people, which I've really never understood. Why be angry that they FOUND a mechanical difficulty? Is it better to just notice it mid-flight? Hmm...
Anyway, we were also informed that Horizon was sending another plane, yippee, and it would be arriving in 2 and a half hours. So we got back in line to recheck into our flight (for some reason). This line was the slowest line I've EVER experienced in an airport. They finished re-checking everyone in (for some reason) about 2 minutes before our new flight arrived.
So, we missed our connection in Seattle. We were rebooked on a flight that boarded about 5 minutes before we arrived at the jetway in Seattle. We had to run. Fast. Thankfully we only had to go from "D" to "C" and not "D" to "Z-689." :-)
We originally were going to have a 5 hour layover in Los Angeles, but of course that had been cut down significantly. We had half an hour in LA to get from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, check in, get through security, find our gate and board. For those of you who haven't had the privelege of experiencing the LA airport, it's dumb. And it's HUGE! Insanely huge. And there are "shuttle buses" to take you to various terminals, but here's the catch: they drive through LA-style traffic at about walking speed and stop at every terminal between you and the one you want to get to. That is, if they bother to show up at all. :-) In reality, I guess, they're just not designed for tight connections.
So we ran...again. We got to our terminal and checked in with the incredible "Slow Motion Woman." She kept saying--think really-slowed-down recording of human voice, "IIIIIIIIIIIII caaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn't guaaaaaaraaaaaannnnnnnteeeeeeee annnnnnnnnythiiiiiiing" over and over while typing with one, maybe two fingers and pausing frequently. All the while we were thinking, if you move much slower we won't make tomorrow's flight! After escaping the incredible "Slow Motion Woman" we ran again. This time to security, where there were, praise the Lord, only a few kind people who offered to let us go ahead of them. We made it to the gate just in time to board. We couldn't believe we'd made it.
Bec's luggage wasn't so lucky. When we arrived in Sydney, we noticed that luggage from a DTS team that had checked in in Montana at the same time as us had somehow made it to Sydney! I noticed that one of my bags had been tagged both to New Orleans (where the DTS team was headed) AND to Sydney. I was quite thankful that it made it--it was my guitar. Bec's bag came in the next day, thankfully, and the airline (good on 'em!) reimbursed her for the delay. They'd messed her bag up pretty bad, though. It looked like it had been dragged behind a plane to Sydney. :-)
Our time in Australia was great. We saw many, though sadly not all, of our friends and family there. We celebrated an early Christmas with Bec's family before heading back to the US for Christmas with my family. It was fun to have the family here at our home in Montana. We were hoping for a white Christmas, but didn't quite get one (though judging by California standards, we did--there was a bit of crusty snow left on the ground). It started raining right before we arrived back in the US, and really hasn't stopped since. Winter has fled.
As a funny side note, when we returned from Australia, we got in at about 12:30am. We waited for all of our stuff at baggage claim...and waited...and waited. Bec's bag was missing again. And they couldn't find it . Again! Amazing. I've traveled a lot in my life, and even lost some luggage, but I've never seen the same bag get lost twice on the same trip. Thankfully, it found its way to us about 5 days later. This was especially important considering its contents. Aussie chocolate. Lots of it. And, praise the Lord, much to our relief, none of it was harmed.
Many of you knew that Bec had to have some tests done before Christmas, and that the bills had been quite a bit higher than expected ($2000). Doctors had also recommended that she have surgery sometime soon to correct a problem they had found. Before we left for Australia, we applied for a grant from the state of Montana that pays for tests like the ones Bec had had. Bec's application went before a committee right before Christmas, and when we returned from Australia, we got a message that she had been accepted--the state of Montana would pay her bill! Of course, that was a huge relief for us, as we had nowhere near the amount of money needed to pay that bill.
We got another piece of good news in Australia. Bec went to a doctor there to get a second opinion regarding the surgery she was told she needed. The doctor she saw didn't think she needed it, but to be sure called one of the top surgeons in that field to get his opinion. He agreed with Bec's doctor. That, as well, was a great relief.
God bless all of you, and Happy Kevin's Birthday (January 25th)! :-)
Kev
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