The trip home

Tuesday - The last day of vacation, just the trip home. Ya right!!
I do not trust motel alarm clocks. Therefore, after setting the clock/radio for 5 am, we decided to also call for a wake up call. Didn't need the wake up call. The radio BLASTED OFF at 5 am full volume and mostly static. We were awake. Ruth, my roommate, had showered the night before so I jumped into the shower. Everything so far is going as planned. We are ready to go at 5:45, the time set the night before. Knock on the door - every one is ready. Load all our luggage and bowling balls into the van, trying to remember how the nice young man at Enterprise had arranged things. Ok, ready to roll. The airport is about 10 minutes from the motel. Oops wrong turn - 20 minutes to the motel. Still ok for time. Kay & Kim were on a different flight. (Kay was our driver). The dropped us at our terminal and returned the car to Enterprise. We thought this would be much easier than wrestling all the luggage in and out of the van and shuttle. That was the last we saw of them. I assume they got home ok.
Ruth, Lajean Phyllis and I all checked in at the counter and got our boarding passes. We checked out the gift shops and got our little mememtos to take home. Then found a Burger King for a breakfast sandwich. On to our boarding gate. There was a little hold up on a couple of our tickets because they said paper ticket required instead of E-ticket. This delay made Lajean and I quite nervous because it was departure time. The plane did wait for all to board, but was now off schedule. We finally got clearance to take off about 40 minutes late. The good pilot made up about 30 minutes time, but we were quite late getting into Chicago. Going form the US Airways terminal to the United terminal was not so easy. We did not have the gate number on our tickets. We had to find the United moniter to get our gate number. Yup it was waaaaaaay down the hall. This required a shuttle ride to the other terminal and then about a block down the hallway to gate 30. Hoping there would be some other delay with our connecting. we practically ran to the gate.. (we are all 60+). Too late, the plane was still there, but the door was closed. (Kim and Kay were also to be on this connecting flight. I guess they had better connections.)
Now we are stuck. Back to the United desk. Nice lady told us all 4 of the flights for that day to Omaha were full. I asked if there was a "red eye". She informed us that Omaha was not a real hot spot. (Then why were all the flights full?) She booked us for the 6:30 am flight for Wednesday and put us on stand by along with about 16 other passengers. Hungry again, we went to the US Airways desk and explained the situation and could we get meal vouchers. The not-so-pleasant lady gave us each a $5.00 voucher for lunch. ( better than nothing).
We found the gate for the next flight out. Trying to decide who should go first - Lajean said she would wait until last since she was driving and no one could leave without her. I said if only one
or two of us could get on, we should go ahead because the likelyhood of all of us getting on any flight was pretty slim. I said I would go if only one seat was available because I could probably have a spot on my sister's couch if they had to stay over. All agreed. Ruth & I had the only cell phones so we made sure we had the numbers and I gave her Shirley's number as a back up. Lajean and Phyllis's names were called so we checked in at the desk. We were told that there were 4 seats available, but 4 names ahead of ours. He kept calling these other names. (I wanted to break his microphone). Three passengers answered the call. One seat left, counting the seconds - two minutes - 90 seconds - one minute - 30 seconds. Ok go you can get on. I ran
down the tunnel and steps out to the plane. Oh, oh, 2 muslims on the plane. Ok, don't be a bigot. Say a little prayer for a safe flight back to "The Good Life", Nebraska. About 2 o'clock I am in the familier Epply Airport - all by myself, sniff.
There were 3 more flights out of O'Hare. The next one to arrive at 5 something. I decide to wait until until the next flight due in around 5 before calling Bob to pick me up to wait or spend the night. I found an Omaha paper and worked the sudoku, the crossword puzzle and the scramble. Oh I read the paper, too. My cell phone battery was really getting low so I decided I would have to find a place to plug it it. I was smart enough to put the charger in my carry on. Sometimes I just amaze myself. The only place I could find an availabele plug in was, of course, the restroom. Just as I took my phone out of my pocket to plug it in, it rang. It was Ruth. They were all on the next flight. I almost shouted for joy. I charged my phone up for about 10 minutes just in case they had to call again. Ok, still 2 hours to kill. I decided to see if I could find our luggage, which I assume had arrived on time. I found the carosel for United, but no bags. I started serching. I found the locked room for unclaimed baggage and could see some familiar bags. I really didn't think I would be able to claim everyones bags, but I went to the counter anyway to see what I could do. The nice lady opened the door and let me take all the bags. I guess since I knew the names on the tags she was ok with it. Now I have 4 bags and 4 bowling ball bags and no where to sit but on the floor for about 2 hours. I found a book I had brought with and sat down. An airport employee came by and, after I explained the situation, said I could take the baggage cart sitting by the door and take the elevator up to meet the others. He helped me load the cart, but I decided to sit on a bench where I could see the esculator that the ladies would have to come down. This would be easier than wrestling all that luggage up the elevator. Good choice. About 5:20 my phone rang. It is Ruth asking where are you. I said just walk straight ahead when you come down the esculator. I looked up and there they were. We are all back in Omaha six hours late, but safe. (They told me that only one of their names was called to the gate, but they all went up and said there are three of us. The person at the gate handed them 3 tickets and said "get on the plane." The didn't argue. We assume someone pulled some strings to get them all on this flight. We really didn't think it would happen since there were at least 12 other people waiting on stand by.) We catch the shuttle to the parking lot and load up Lajeans car and decide we should eat. We had seen a little diner on Wednesday that looked rather inviting, but was just closing that night so we went there, had a sandwich and took off for Norfolk. No more problems. About 9:pm we got back to Lajeans where Ruth had left her car after picking up Phyllis & I. The process was reversed and Ruth took Phyllis and I home. Nice trip even with all the frustrations and bad bowling.
Sue