Travelling with Murphy

Murphy and I had a flight that was leaving at 12:20 am on Saturday night. I have known about this flight for months, heck I booked the damn thing. But by 9 pm that night was I packed all the way? Nope, still had stuff in the dryer even. At 9:30 I finished my packing and brought out the scale to weigh my suitcase. Dammit 64 lbs. I grabbed a bunch of stuff out and figured I had room to carry it on and got the weight down to 49.4 (or so I thought).

Kathy gets me to the airport by 10:30, I have plenty of time, all is good. I use the automated machine to check in my luggage (I printed my boarding pass at home the night before) and even get a chance to get a “premium extra charge” seat for NO extra charge. Feeling pleased and impressed I let the attendant know I was ready for him to take my luggage and up on the official scale it goes….WTF? 54 lbs! Are you kidding me? Who slipped something in my suitcase when I wasn’t looking? Attendant not so nicely reminds me the limit is 50lbs and tells me to remove something. I hate people like me so I quickly open up the suitcase, ascertain that removing my toiletries bag will do the trick (don’t get ahead of me here) and it fits snuggly into my second carryon. I get it to weigh 50lbs EXACTLY and Mr. Smuggy Pants, directs me to the security lane.

I have traveled plenty since 9/11, I have heard horror stories about security lines and yet have actually inwardly laughed at everyone’s stories because I have never had a problem. But when you travel with Murphy there is always a problem. The security line took almost a half an hour. By the time I got through and to the gate it was 11:45 and they were beginning to make announcements for boarding my flight. But let’s get back to the security line. I am very proficient at security, I wear easily removable shoes, I know how to run the laptop through (in it’s own bucket), I usually end up with 4 buckets with all my stuff. This time was no different, well it was though because remember that toiletries bag? Yep, it was full of shampoo, lotion, hair gel, all things I no longer own. I got pulled aside and they went through the bag and disposed of all of them. They did relent and let me keep the Bengay since it is medicinal.

I am so glad I got there as early as I did.

Murphy decided to stay in LA, on my first flight I was very comfortable in my Exit row seat, with so much leg room I didn’t even notice when the person in front of me put their seat back. And the ONLY empty seat on the plane? Yep right next to me! I was able to curl up or spread out, and actually slept for the majority of the flight, over 3 hours. The second flight was of course on the other side of the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport but I hightailed it and made it in the nick of time. I thought I was late because the waiting area was pretty empty. I heard the desk attendant tell the flight attendants as they were boarding that they had 415 passengers. I looked around me and thought there must be another flight coming in cuz there isn’t 415 people here. We boarded and I found my teeny tiny seat and got buckled in and as comfortable as possible. A few more people trickled in. AND THEN THEY CLOSED THE DOOR! The 415 turned out to be 4/15 4 first class 15 coach! 15 people on my flight! I asked the attendant if I could move and she approved so I jumped into the empty exit row, flipped up all the armrests and laid down to go back to sleep! Unfortunately this was a fairly short flight but the nap was nice.

I arrived in Chicago more than a half hour early ready and rarin’ to go. Well, maybe not as ready as I thought. Let’s backtrack a little. Remember when I changed my seat at the very beginning? I had to get a new boarding pass for that and relinquish my old one (yep that’s when Murphy was still around). When I got to Chicago, I realized that my rental car reservation paperwork was with the relinquished boarding pass and I had NO clue which company I rented from. I tried calling my sister, you know, the one who says “Call me when you land!” Yeah that one, the one who didn’t answer her phone the 6 times I called her. I found a courtesy phone and proceeded to call all of the rental car companies and explain my plight and they all very nicely declined my reservation until the 5th one finally Budget had me listed. I get my beautiful Ford Escape (that’s a whole ‘nother post) and head out on my way.

I have by now finally reached my sleepyhead sister and have the directions from the airport to her hotel (she and Lyle stayed in the city overnight). Unfortunately there was no hotel name on the directions and I guess our illustrious President Elect was going to be in the city because all available street parking was filled with police cars. After circling the block multiple times, I decided to pay the piper and valet at the hotel.

Breakfast was beyond yummy, not just because by now I was starving but it was really good. I didn’t catch the name of the restaurant but it is attached to the Club Quarters hotel. Lyle went off on his own adventure to a record store (I swear he and Adam are more related than just by marriage) and Erika and I headed off on our own.

(to be continued)