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] .
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