Part 3: Travel Gone Awry

There we were dumped in Charlotte, North Carolina. In order to get us to our destination, we (Chris) had to wait in a line a mile long to get us rebooked on some flight, any flight. I hung out with the kids while Chris waited. As we were waiting I remembered that perhaps Charlotte had a flight to Scranton - which would be ideal since our original plans had us flying into Philly, renting a car and then driving the 2 hours to my parents. But if we were able to get to the Scranton airport we'd have only a 30 minute drive. I checked the departure board and noticed a flight leaving in about 2 hours to Scranton. It was in Concourse E. We were in Concourse B or C (I don't remember). Either way, it is a trek to Concourse E where Chris would again encounter really long lines in Special Services in hopes of getting us on that flight.

Colt wanted to be with Chris while he ran to Concourse E. Jonathan, Carena and I decided to just mosey there, since we'd just be waiting in line anyway. As Colt and Chris took off running, I noticed Colt's shoes were untied. I should have said something.

This next part - please do not talk to Colt about it. It's a very sensitive subject. So, Jonathan, Carena and I moseyed to Concourse E. As we were going down the escalator to E, I noticed Chris and Colt off to the side at the bottom of the escalator. Colt was sobbing. Just sobbing. We deboarded the escalator and went to see what the problem was. Colt's lip was huge and bleeding. Chris was frantically tying Colt's shoes. The story is that Colt's lace got caught in the escalator!! Since it was stuck and Colt was trying to get off the escalator, he fell - face first. Chris immediately saw the situation and just yanked that lace out of the escalator, freeing Colt.

I took over with Colt and the kids while Chris continued his run to E. Colt's lip was bleeding, but thankfully, not too bad. I had a towel in my backpack that I put cold water on and gave to Colt. We then slowly made our way to E. We didn't go very far when Colt told me he thought he was going to be sick. We ran to the nearest bathroom and he starting getting sick. We hung out in the bathroom for about 10 minutes before Colt felt ready to move on.

Finally we make it to E, where we met up with Chris who was in a line, a long line, but not as long as the line he was just in. So that was positive.

I took the kids to get something to eat and we just really hung out. Finally Chris made it through the line and was able to get us on stand-by for that flight to Scranton.

Sadly, the flight was full and we didn't get on that flight. We then had to rebook on a different flight - one into Philly THE NEXT DAY. We asked the booking person if we could get our luggage so we at least had it for the night. She told us we could pick it up at the luggage carousel. Down to baggage claim we went. We waited and waited and waited and waited. No luggage. Chris then waited in another insanely long line to find out where our luggage was. He finally made it to the counter - they told him that with as many canceled flights as there were, they weren't pulling ANY luggage, but assured us it'd be on the next flight out to Philly.

By this time it was getting late - 11 pm. We were tired and the baggage claim area of Charlotte airport stinks like exhaust. Chris decided to see if he could find an airport hotel that we could hunker down in for the night.

All the airport hotels were booked. Arg. He then decides that we'll rent a car and drive to the nearest hotel. We got a car and drove and the first hotel we come upon is a very nice Hampton Inn. We got a beautiful comfortable room and within 30 SECONDS of turning the lights off, the kids were asleep. Ahhhhh.

The next morning we partook of a most fabulous continental breakfast that consisted of fruit salad, yogurt, hot chocolate, WAFFLES, various juices, eggs, sausage, and danishes. It was all wonderful and a great way to refuel for the day ahead of us.

We headed back to the Charlotte airport . . .