Saturday December 12, 2009
The flight itself was rather smooth and I slept for most of the 9 hours. We arrived in Miami a mere hour before my flight to LA was supposed to depart, and knowing that I still had to clear customs, it looked bleak. Sure enough, when I went to claim and re-check my bags from customs to my LA flight, the TSA folks told me I had missed the flight and had to rebook my flight. You know it is a common thing since American has a rebook counter just past customs. Thankfully, American had taken care of everything for me and I was rebooked on the 1130 flight to LA.
Having been separated from Mom, I went towards her gate to see if she was on the flight and via text message found out she had already boarded the flight. So I walked back to my terminal and proceeded to get some Pizza Hut and just relax. I found out a bit later that Mom and Gary’s flight had been delayed and they were towed back to the gate. They eventually had to disembark the aircraft and wait in a holding area. I was ready to board my flight and they were asking for volunteers to give up seats for a later flight, but I did not want to take any more chances and decided to stick with what I had.
The flight back to LA from Miami was pretty good, despite it being on the dreaded 757. My seatmates were pretty chill and I caught myself doing a half dozen or so snore-awakes before I decided to watch the last episode of Michael Palin’s New Europe and Disney-Pixar’s Up on my iPhone. I arrived into LAX about 10 minutes late and Dad was already circling the airport to pick me up, It seemed like there was a lengthy delay in getting my bags, but I was glad that they both arrived safely.
I found out later in the day that Mom did not leave until 4 hours later than originally, and then on a flight to Dallas instead of Chicago. I finally made it home 21 hours after departing the Hilton Buenos Aires. I was glad we took it easy the last day in Buenos Aires, I think it helped me deal with the craziness of the flights.
Thus ends another travel chapter! I have no idea when I will be on the road again, hopefully soon!
