Connecting Fun

Tick...tick...tick the clock struck 6:05am and we were still on the ground. Everything appeared to be normal except for the strange man, in a blue shirt, that read: U.S. Airways maintenance. My initial response was to text my mom. However, I did not want to make her worry about my safety. I knew the airlines would only let us fly if it was safe. After 15 minutes of waiting around, the captain came on and expressed his concern about the passengers making our connecting flights due to a maintenance repair. My mind started to race...are the wheels okay.... I hope it's not the wings... What if it's the motor... Blahhh... Then I told myself to relax and it would all be okay. The huge maintence issue I was making up in my head ended up being a broken lock on the bathroom door. 35 minutes later we finally departed for Phoenix. I was very content with my book in hand 

And the bathroom across the aisle 

The anxiety did not start until the Captain came on several times telling us to look at the magazine in the back of the seat to make a stratagey in order to make our connecting flight. As we were landing an announcement came on asking to let all connecting passengers off first. 

After landing, we taxied for a million years, so it seemed. We took turn after turn after turn. My heart was beating faster and faster. We finally made it to the gate and guess what.....Every single passenger stood up as if tgey all had a connecting flight! For those of you who know me, I cannot keep my mouth shut, I yelled, "You really all have connecting flights. You are all really inconsiderate. Some of us need to make our flights in 8 minutes." I ran to the next wing of the airport. I passed two people movers as my hiking backback towered over me. The nerves took over and my mouth became so dry, i knew my anxiety was in full force. I made it to the gate at 9:30am and my scheduled flight departure time was 9:33am. The plane was gone. The lady at the desk told me that they shut the doors 10 minutes before departure time.... 

I was reassigned a new boarding pass for a later flight. Which means my next connecticting flight will be a tight one as well. I now boarded my flight for North Carolina.  I met a really nice lady who helped the time go by fast. I gathered my stuff and the people around me helped me stuff my backpack under the seat so when we landed I could run off the plane and catch my next flight. As I was about to get off the sweet lady handed me 40 dollars and told me it was nothing much but I could at least by a meal or two. She was such a sweetheart. I wish I would have thought to give her my blog to follow me... Unfortunately, there was no time for that... 

Instead of having 3 hours to refresh, grab something to eat, and go to the bathroom another couple and I spent our time running from one side of the terminal through the food court, pushing and slipping through any open space we saw. We tried to keep up with her husbands light jog but his 6ft legs were over powering our sprint. 

Her husband left us in the dust to hold the plane in case it came to that. Luckily, we got there just in time for them to check our passports and board. 

Beep beep... "Attention passengers... Captain speaking from the flight deck... We had a check engine light appear and are proceeding back to have it looked at." 

24minutes later

Beep beep... "Attention passengers... Captain speaking from the flight deck, we understand that this is hard to understand however, we are satisfied with the conclusion of the repair. We will be departing very soon. Sorry for the delay." 

Let the adventure start is all I can say. I am happy I was able to get some sprints in. I haven't been to the gym in a month and I just jumped right back into running miles in the airport with children saying, "mommy why are these people running." Not use to hearing words of encouragement at my runs. Surprisingly, it made me run faster;-) 

The flight was not bad at all. There were TVs filled with movies, games, puzzles, trivia, and GPS.

 I tried to get some sleep on the plane so I would be rested for my day to start once I landed but I was not successful.