Travailin' to Bucyrus

Did I just say "Travailin?" What a slip of the tongue, but too true. February 17, C and I arrived at the airport at 2:10 for a flight to Bucyrus which was departing at 3:35. Plenty of time, I assumed, even going through security and checking our bags would give us an hour and 20 minutes.

I remove my cape, shoes, jacket, cell phone and blue tooth and deposit them in the gray tray. I reach for my carry-on and add that to the tray. I look back to see how C is faring, only to see her standing there, apparently fascinated with the shedding of all the "stuff" I have. "Chris take off your shoes, your purse, your jacket and sweater and put them in the bin", I growled. Yes, I growled at her.

She tried slipping off her coat while wearing her purse, but finally figured that out, removed her purse from over her shoulder, and began working on getting shoes, sweater, jacket, and her wallet ready and stood there and held them as if someone was going to steal them. "Put them in the bin", I told her as she gazed around. By this time, there are three people ahead of her.

I was being wheeled through security to be patted down and finally see Chris ready to go through security. "May I look in your bag?" the security guy asked. "I guess so", Chris meekly responded. He opened the bag and pulled out a 12 oz. bottle of shampoo. "What's this?. he asked. "My shampoo", she replied. "You can't carry a bottle that size on board". "It's for my scalp, a special shampoo", said Chris tearfully. "Well, I have to test it" and he proceeded to pour some out and take it over to be be scanned.

Now it's 2:40. I am sitting waiting, no shoes on, with all my belongings in a bin and finally hear him say, "Okay, you can go now". Chris picks up her suitcase and everything promptly falls out, as Mr. Security didn't zip her bag closed and Chris didn't check. Arggh! Some kind people helped her repack her carry-on and finally we get all our belongings in one spot. I get my shoes on, grab my cape, put on my jacket, retrieve my cell phone and blue tooth and Chris has on one shoe. By the time she is ready and has tied my shoes, it is 2:55. "Hurry, Chris we have to check in", I tell her. "But I haven't eaten all day", she whined. I ignore her and keep going to the check-in desk. We have our boarding passes, but need a pre-boarding pass and must get my wheelchair checked in. I also need to use a bathroom by this time.

Of course it's the last gate we are going to. Chris gets me down to the gate to preboard, but has spied a bagel place on the way to the gate. "Chris, we don't have time", I say. It's only 3:10 and I'll run", she says. She leaves her carry-on, my cane, my carry-on and cape and takes off . . . and now people are disembarking and the Flight Attendant is telling people to start lining up . . . and no Chris!

Now the first person is pre-boarding, and I look at all our belongings and think "There is no way I can do this!" Ah, there's Chris coming. Oh, wait she stopped, despite my beckoning her to run. And what's that she's eating? A blueberry muffin? "Chris", I yell in exasparation, "Put that away until we get on the plane".

Stuffing the muffin into my carry-on, she finally manages to get our stuff, just in time for us to pre-board. It took her 10 minutes to get us buckled in at which time they were already taking off. My heart is finally returning to normal and then Chris says, "Can I have my muffin now"? I fish my bag out with my feet, get it open and, big mistake, hand her the muffin. It took her 45 minutes to pick it apart, spilling crumbs every time she picked at it. So much more happened, but the worst for me was when I turned on my Kindle to read my new downloaded book, it said it needed to be charged. I read Sky Miles the rest of the trip and tried to pretend I didn't know the woman sitting next to me. I hope Mary and Kevin have a great flight to Hawaii!