that my kids (ages just-turned-11-TODAY...happy bday sweetpea & 8) are the ***greatest**** little travelers? They more or less traveled sans video, dvd, laptop, gameboy, or other entertainment for FOUR days straight, with nary an eye roll from the eleven year old or pout from the 8 year old.
They hit the road on Saturday morning, went on about a 3 1/2 hour ride for father's day with their grandmother & dad. Turned around & headed home the very next day (Sunday), this time more like 4-5 hours because of a freeway closing. They arrived home at 9:00 p.m. and then were up at 6:00 am to start our adventure.
We left the house yesterday (Monday) at 6:30 am for what would normally be about a half hour trip to Hobby airport. But due to floods, we were unable to exit the freeway to get to the airport. Apparently no one else had any better luck, because they closed the airport until noon, which is about the time we finally were able to get through the water anyway. Interesting thing I learned while driving all over Houston trying to find a dry enterance to the airport: although the road Alemeda Genoa is referenced often on the traffic reports and even sits thorougly inside the boundaries of beltway 8, it is actually a very rural looking road. I can't imagine who is listening to those traffic reports...must have been those three cows we saw, 'cause there certainly weren't any people!
We then spent another 4-5 hours in various lines and gates at the Houston airport. None of the displays at the gates were working, so that although we were told to wait at gate 51, and the display indeed listed 51 as our gate, we actually ended up leaving from gate 47. I believe they were shuffling the gates every so often to keep the weary travelers from falling too soundly asleep.
As we finally boarded (just about the time we were supposed to LAND in New Hampshire) they announced that we would be taking off in about 5 minutes and would arrive on time. No surprise that we left over a half hour later & arrived just about the time our connecting flight was scheduled to take off. Lucky for us, our connection was two hours behind schedule too, the weather apparently being as lousy in Baltimore as it had been in Houston. Our plane finally took off after midnight & it was around 1:30 am when we finally got to New Hampshire, still not our final desitination.
Now it would have been a minor miricle had our luggage come off the belt in the normal way, and I didn't expect it. Sure enough, although Southwest hadn't gotten US to New Hampshire at a decent time of day, they had sped our luggage right on through & it had been waiting for us (all glass broken, shampoo spilled, nail polish leaking throughout the bathroom kit, box opened and inspected by homeland security - 'cause who *wouldn't* be suspicious of a bunch of 50 year old photo albums??). I would complain about them not having mentioned that possibility BEFORE all of us waited for every single bag to be unloaded from the plane but...well, what's another half hour by that time? Overnight at a hotel, two airport shuttle busses & another couple hours in a rental car this morning & here we finally are at Grammy & Grandpa's on Tuesday!
Did I mention that my kids did NOT complain?!? Did I mention that the only real meal we ate in 30 hours was breakfast? I know, they're getting old enough so I shouldn't be surprised, but they have always been great travelers & I am so lucky!
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