Powered By Blogger

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

That’s Normal, Right?


By: Samantha S. Daviss

 

Flying to the wrong state. Being told you aren’t checked all the way through to your final destination, renting a car and driving across the entire state of Kansas is normal, right?

That’s how everyone travels these days isn’t it? I don’t think our family would know what to do if things went smoothly and easily. I feel like I could write an entire book just on our adventures and day to day antics alone.

So over the holidays we embarked on another adventure to the slopes, to enjoy a few days of relaxation with our family and friends. Enjoy the cool weather of the Rocky Mountains, and put our downhill skiing skills to the test once more.

On the way getting there was the real adventure, though. You would think packing bags, driving to the airport, and getting on a plane would be easy; but for our family it’s not. It’s a really a long and convoluted reason how this happened, but the short version is that two of our family member’s tickets weren’t checked all the way through to Denver. We had a stop-over in Kansas City, Missouri. And I am sure Missouri is lovely this time of year, but to be honest, I had no interest in spending any time there.

Once we found out (upon arrival in Kansas City) that the agent in Dallas hadn’t done their job properly and two members weren’t checked all the way through, even though our bags were; there were no more flights out of Kansas City for the rest of the day to Denver.

So thinking fairly quickly, while still in a bit of shock, my husband and I started calling other airlines, and when we turned the short end of that stick up…we looked at one another and said…”Shall we drive?”

Needless to say, my husband, and the two older boys went to the rental car office, got us a car; while the baby and I collected all the luggage, changed a dirty diaper in the middle of the airport, and waited for the three men to return with our chariot to carry us across the Land of Oz.

Being used to a three row SUV on a daily basis, we crammed all of our luggage in the very back cargo bay area, while the three boys (which included a huge car seat, a booster seat, and a very scrunched up pre-teen) shared the back seat.

And off we went. Ten hours and counting.

Now if you know anything about geography, we only spent about 30 minutes in the state of Missouri, but about eight hours in the state of Kansas, and another two to two and a half getting to our destination in Colorado.

During the course of the drive, I think I managed to come up with every foul mouthed word to throw at Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow. Kansas was not my most favorite place in the world at the time. But I must say, on an average day, it is an absolute struggle to drive from Corsicana to Dallas with my boys, without one of them ripping the other’s arm off, or a screaming match ensuing in the back seat.

But this “little adventure” across the prairie lands of the good ol’ USA; our boys were absolute angels. It’s almost as if they knew Mommy and Daddy’s rapidly fraying ropes, were not only frayed but they had caught on fire, and were flaming out like gasoline doused torches.

We made a few side highway stops for potty breaks and dirty diapers; a big stop for dinner, but all in all it was pretty “trauma free”. We were all a little more crowded than we would have been on the airplane…but nonetheless, we were together, suffering together, and making the best of it. We played car games, we laughed, we napped, and we made it there safely…so I would say it was a successful adventure[S1] .


 [S1]

No comments: