I'm currently sitting on the very hard and suspiciously wet airport floor in Granada, Spain, immediately right of the entrance. Right in front of the doors is the big information chart that shows the gates, check in desks, and other general information of the departing flights.
We walked about half an hour ago, maybe a little more, to see that our flight to Paris had been canceled. This is a big problem, because tomorrow morning, a plane will take off from Paris heading to Salt Lake City, Utah, which we need to be on. And it's not possible to be on that plane unless we get to Paris pronto.
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| The sign that shows the flight details. |
We haven't seen Mom since we started trying to figure this out, but we have seen flashes of Dad as he tries to get this to work.
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| Mood: Exasperated, Frustrated |
6/9/2018 9:30 PM
At the moment all five of us and all our luggage are crammed into a car, driving to Madrid. The computer is on my lap, and my backpack and plastic bags of gas station food (our dinner) are wedged between me and the window. The Spanish countryside is rushing past, and it's golden hour right now. Or, as my sister Grace calls it, picture time (okay, so I can't cite a time when she called it that, but it sounds like a Grace comment). The car stereo system is blasting Annie's Song by John Denver as we burn though Dad's old road trip playlist, from back when we drove from Seattle to San Fransisco when we moved.
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| The road to Madrid. |
A while after I finished writing last time (around seven) Mom and Dad both came over, telling us that we were renting a car and driving to Madrid. Then tomorrow morning we would get on a plane to New York, and after a long layover, we would take another plane to Salt Lake City, arriving at about eight in the evening, whereas before we would get there at about one in the afternoon.
Once we were in the car, and had bought some snacks at the gas station, Dad gave us some more information on what had happened. Since our flight had been canceled (it's not clear why at this point) we had to consider all different types of getting to Paris, but at some point it became clear that it wasn't going to work. Dad went on all kinds of calls, trying to figure out how to get us to Utah. He figured some flights out, but tickets would have cost $15,000. He was on the phone talking to Delta trying to see what they could do (Dad has super-status with Delta from flying so often), when they pulled through, dropping the price way down. Go Delta!
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| Mood: Hopeful and Reasonably Content, but still Tired and Stressed |
6/9/2018 11:59 PM
I'm in the hotel room, really wanting to finish up get to sleep. A little after eleven we got to the hotel, but then we spent another 15 plus minutes driving around, trying to find the right entrance and parking. Of course, then we discovered it was where we had started in the first place. It took us a while to get the trunk of the car open, and even longer to get checked in. Now I'm sitting on my hotel bed typing this up, while really craving Top Ramen. I'm also downloading a movie for the planes tomorrow.
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| Mood: Get me out of this country. And a big bowl of ramen. |
6/10/2018 7:22 AM
So...our flight from here to New York has been delayed one hour. That can be seen as good news because we get more time to eat breakfast. But, on the other hand, now we're carrying on baggage because we need to move quickly in our two hour layover in New York.
I'm sitting on my hotel bed, fully packed but exhausted. We've been trying to stay up late and sleep in to get ready for the Salt Lake time zone, so waking up at seven feels really early to me.
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| Mood: Exhausted |
We're in the Madrid Airport with our gate in sight. Boarding should begin at around half past ten, and we have our fingers crossed that our flight won't be delayed anymore. If it is, then we're in deep trouble, because missing our connecting flight to Utah would be catastrophic.
Check in took a while because we were trying to sort out the seat arrangements, although we didn't check any bags. It looks like our seats might be closer together now, which is great because before we were scattered throughout the plane due to our late booking. Then we had to get through security and immigrations, which is pretty much second nature to us now. We did have a slight hiccup with Cannon's model obelisk that he bought in Egypt. In the scanner it looked like a weapon, so they had to check what it was. But it made it through in the end, and I guess all's well that ends well.
We tried to get into the lounge in the airport, which we can normally do with Dad and Mom's (mostly Dad's) frequent flying status. But for some reason there was an issue with letting us (meaning the three kids) in, so instead we're sitting in the main area a stone's throw away from our gate, separated only by a final small security checkpoint.
We're all feeling run down, exhausted and ready to get on a plane and make some progress.
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| Mood: Get. Me. Out. Of. This. Country...please. |
6/10/2018 10:17 AM
Now we're just outside the gate, having gotten through the final hurdle (hopefully). In the security checkpoint Dad and I were marked for extra security, which seems to be chosen by random. They pulled us off to the side of the room and we sat in a roped off section until it was our turn to be screened. We had to put our bags on a table and they looked through everything, taking swabs and putting them into a machine which seemed to search for any evidence of dangerous chemicals. We also had to take our electronics out and take their cases off, which posed a bit of a problem since my computer case was being stubborn. In the end they pried it off with a screwdriver. They also did a full body scan and swabbed our hands. After what felt like half an hour, but what was probably more like fifteen or twenty minutes, we were free to go.
I've got Oreos and chips and gummy bears for the flight, and it looks like I'll be seated next to Cannon. Hopefully we'll have seatback screens on the plane.
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| Mood: Still Freaked out but Oddly Happy |
6/10/2018 3:04 PM (New York Time)
We're in New York! Right now we're waiting just outside our gate, but it's been a trip to get here. After we landed we went to immigrations (we have global entry so it was pretty snappy) and customs (just walking through), then went to a desk to reprint our boarding passes and to see if we could get better seats. Once again, I was flagged for extra security, but the rest of the family had TSA PreCheck. Dad volunteered to go through the slow line and extras security with me, so we split up. But at the desk right before security they told us our boarding passes were not useable, because they said we started in Madrid, not New York. So we went to another desk to try to get new passes, which took quite a while, but eventually we got them (it looks like we all have middle seats, but maybe they can change that at the gate), and this time I had PreCheck like the rest of my family. Great! But, since getting the boarding passes took so long, we couldn't get Shake Shack like we had intended. Instead we bought food from a convenience store, and right now I'm eating Pesto Pasta Salad.
We're so close to the end! Fingers crossed it goes without a hitch.
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| Mood: Tired, but hey... at least we're in America! |
6/10/2018 10:10 PM (Salt Lake City Time)
We're here! I'm sitting on my bed in our AirBnB and typing things up in the dark. When our plane landed we left the airport to find my Dad's friend Jason with our Tesla, which was filled with the stuff that we had sent ahead to Utah before we had left America in the first place.
We drove to a grocery store and picked up some food for the evening and morning, and then got to our AirBnB. There was a lot of squealing and even crying as everyone was reunited with their long lost items (not all of them, just some clothes and maybe a blanket or another comfort item). I have my blue blanket!
We had a dinner of ramen (Chicken Top Ramen, since they didn't have the oriental flavor, which is pretty much the only one I've ever eaten) and instant mashed potatoes. Now I'm ready for some long earned rest, since I haven't slept in who knows how long.
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| Mood: Tired BUT HEY WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!! |
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