We FINALLY made it back to Da Boot from our "vacation gone wrong". Getting here was a small feat in itself. Robby had to call the airline 3 times during the week before he could get our flights switched from a late night arrival to a morning one. The first 2 times, he was told that we would be charged an extra $400 for them making this change; ummm...THAT didn't go over very well. By the third call, his frustration level had raised considerably and that person agreed to make the changes free of charge.
Although we were to start our journey from Dallas to Louisiana back the next morning (instead of evening...), I was still feeling a bit anxious at even stepping foot inside an airport again. And this anxiety was to be an omen of MORE things to come.
Upon attempting to print our boarding passes before leaving the hotel, we found that 6 people had been kicked out of the system and had not tickets (GREAT!!!). After a lengthy call was made to the airline, they "found" those return flight tickets and it was a "GO" again. Two Yucons and 11 people threw their luggage in and set out for the last leg (hopefully...) of a week long "adventurous journey".
We arrived at the airport to check in and knew that we should still have free luggage check in since we had booked with the airline's business travel department...OH, wait a minute! THEY were the ones who had ALSO booked our trip and didn't tell us about the passport changes, weren't they?! Our group was taking up so much room in line, that we decided to move to the side to allow other customer to make their way to the counter (a nice gesture...however, no good deed goes unpunished...) when a security guard began making his way toward us. Observing this, I was ready to pounce! HEY! I wasn't afraid of THAT little man...I had survived a night in the hoosegow in a foreign country, after all! (OK...so I wasn't actually in the jail, but I WAS under guard all night...). As he approached me, he had barely said, "This is the end of the line; you need to move..." when I said, "I KNOW THAT....WE ARE WITH HIM!!!" (pointing to Robby...). He glanced at me and decided to approach my father-in-law instead, asking him, "So, how long were y'all in Costa Rica?" I didn't hear what Bob said, but we found ourselves being taken out of line and moved to another location (OH NO...what NOW?). He walked us (all 11 of us...) outside (in the heat...) to another security line. HOWEVER, while Robby was checking our luggage in, the was another "little" problem (imagine THAT...). It seems that my bag was 5 pounds over weight and they wanted to charge him $100 for that bag. Yea, you guessed it...that didn't go over very well; he told them they could throw the whole bag away (a little extreme, I agree, but his point was made...)! SO...5 pounds of my "stuff" ended up in other people's bags (which I still do not have all of...). Robby also handed me one item to carry; my devotional journal. He said, "WHO was going to read a book on Africa on this trip?" WHAT?! "That book I just gave you", he said. "That is not a book on Africa; it's my devotional journal. AND remember, I was planning on RELAXING and doing some READING on the beach on this vacation", I replied. "Oh, OK...", he said.
As we made our individual ways through the security check point, I noticed that Robby was still standing there while they looked at something in the x-ray machine. The agent pulled a bag out and I could see there was "something of interest" that she was asking him about. They took that journal out of the bag and clipped to the inside of it was an ink pen...hmmm; almost didn't make it through security because of an ink pen?! Eventually we all made it through, found our gate and some set out to grab a quick bite of breakfast. Robby came back with a bag from McDonald's...to find that they did not put his hash brown in and also failed to give me any cream cheese or butter for my bagel; why didn't this surprise me at this point? Our plane began to board and hopefully in less than an hour we would find ourselves at home.
Someone once said that "every" experience should be a "learning" experience. What had I learned from this little experience?
1. I don't speak or understand Spanish very well (and most likely never will...)
2. I really don't ever want to go back to Costa Rica (it's WAY over rated...)
3. I would STILL never let a member of my family spend a night in the hoosegow alone (just being there for
someone DOES count for something...)
4. The Rogenmoser crew are very much like "The Three Musketeers"..."All for one and one for All"!
5. Texas is SUPER HOT in the summer, but there are some really "cool" things to do there.
6. Dorothy was right! THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME (AND The United States of America!)
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