For now, not only do we tow our travel trailer, we decided it would be best to drive the car along with us. I drive the car, Paul tows the camper with his truck. This allows us to venture off to places in the car without having to strictly use the truck. We haven't decided if we will always continue to travel this way but for now we will. This also gives me access to the car while Paul is working locally for trips to the grocery store or wherever. We also use the car for day trips so we can explore the area; we have several of those planned out.
Our daughter, Shelby is 18 years old and just graduated high school. She has several neurological conditions which make learning and living independently difficult for her. She has attended public schools all of her life in Louisiana and Mississippi and since Mississippi is our home base, all of her resources are there. There are times we need to go back to Mississippi to handle paperwork or necessary appointments to help her as she transitions into adulthood. We, as a family, are learning what her best needs are and the best ways to help her out. For now, there is a lot of waiting. She is on a waiting list, which we are told could be very lengthy, years long; so there is not much for her to do except wait. She could pick up a job and see how she handles it, however we have a little experience with this and knowing her and how she is, we know that her having and keeping a job will have its ups and downs. A lot of them! She's only 18, mentally she is much younger so my feeling is to not rush anything at all and just let her enjoy life without any major responsibilities for as long as possible. The waiting list for services for her is long but that gives her the opportunity to explore new places; experience new things in life. I don't want to leave her in Mississippi while we are traveling all over the place. She can't handle doctor's or dentist appointments without me being there and that is not going to change anytime soon so while we are waiting, why not have some fun.
The time to travel back to Mississippi came rather quickly into our trip. I knew it would as this appointment was scheduled before we even left. We could have driven back from Iowa, however it would have taken more time and comparing the cost of driving back to the cost of flying; it is more economical for us to fly. Our oldest son, works for an airline and they have great benefits. Flying for free and next-to-nothing is passed on to family members and friends he wishes to add to his benefits.
Shelby did not want to fly; she has never flown before. We have always loved to take trips and vacations but with four kids, we never really could afford to fly; we would always drive. I've been a few flights and so has my husband and once we took Aaron when he was a baby. Now we have no excuse not to fly and for quick trips it really is the best.
So, Shelby had her first experience flying. We went from Des Moines, Iowa to Dallas to Gulfport. We did not have any delays or any problems going there and everything was on time. We flew into Gulfport because her appointment was in Gulfport and I wanted to fly back the next morning from there.
We did rent a car and travel to Hattiesburg to check some mail and we stayed with my sister at that time.
It was fun renting a beetle bug :)
Shelby did fine the entire trip and I spoiled her to shrimp twice! She loves shrimp as much as I do. However shrimp and other seafood does not love her back so much (messes with her head).
This lead us to having a wonderful "Shelby Conversation" about shrimp while delayed heading back.
We took care of busy, got up early to catch the 7:30 flight out of Gulfport to Dallas and then out of Dallas back to Des Moines.
The 7:30 flight was delayed; mechanical issue. It was pushed back to 8:30 but it was still ok, our flight in Dallas didn't leave until 11 so we would still be good and it actually was delayed as well. Still all good. I had taken off work so no worries at this time, just a small delay.
We board the plane around 8:30 and get situated. The plane starts going, the emergency policy thing as usual is going on. We get to the runway, about to take off and the plane doesn't do like it's supposed to. The pilot: there is a problem, we will have to go back to the gate and get off. A different, unrelated mechanical problem. The afternoon flights to Dallas are all booked. The part for that plane we just got off will have to come in on one of those flights from Dallas. They do not know if they will be able to get the plane going that day or not (they weren't and I figured it wouldn't be the same day). Most mechanical problems do take more time to fix.
The only reason I was wanting to get back sooner was because I took off that day (Thursday) with work; I did not take off Friday so I did not want to fly on Friday! Since all the flights that afternoon were booked to Dallas, we could go to Charlotte and get to Des Moines that way; there were plenty of flights from Charolotte to Des Moines. So they switched us to Charlotte.
So we wait a few hours for the afternoon and board the plane to Charlotte. Still doing ok, because we will still get back to Des Moines that evening. We did have to pick up our bags and re-check them to go to Charolotte so so far, haven't lost our bags yet :)
The waiting is hard on Shelby but anytime she has to wait for things is hard on her. I have learned to become the most patient person while waiting. I just wanted to get back to Des Moines sometime that night. We even left the airport to go get some more shrimp; anything to try and help her with the waiting. Actually we waited so much in the airport that day, I didn't even need to take off! I got on my computer and did some work.Shelby Rested
So we board the plane to Charolotte around 4pm (I think or maybe 3). Everyone is one the plane and we are not moving. A few minutes later the pilot comes on saying that communication is down and they are not able to get fuel on the plane but will wait a few more minutes to see if it comes back up.
I learned something new about flying that day:
The planes have to communicate with where they are going before fuel is added and everything is ready to take off. I did not know that.
I don't understand why they had us even get on the plane if it wasn't ready to go. I guess they were being optimistic and thinking it was a minor delay and everything would work out by the time we all got on board. However, it didn't and it wasn't a minor delay.
We don't move and we sit there for about 30mins and the pilot comes back on and says that we will need to unboard the plane; we can't just sit there not knowing how long it would be before they are able to take off.
We unboard and wait another 30 mins or so; now it is after 5pm. (We had gotten to the airport at 5:30 am). It takes even more time to find out that all communication in Charlotte is down and is not coming back up so that flight has to be cancelled.
I am thinking we will just have to stay in Gulfport again and fly out Friday. That means I will need to take off work Friday; I didn't want to take off work Friday; I could but I just didn't want to so that was last resort.
However, there was one last flight to Dallas, fixing to board. Actually there were several others getting on that flight that were from our cancelled flight that morning. I had forgotten about the 6:30pm flight because I was thinking we could get to Charlotte; taking such a late flight to Dallas would leave us in Dallas; wasn't sure there were any late flights out of Dallas.
By the time I get to the counter (the line was slow going for people trying to change and figure things out) the flight to Dallas was boarding. The wonderful person working got us on though. It was literally 5 minutes before they were going to close the doors! She worked magic and got us on! At least we would get to Dallas and then could just fly out in the morning; there was a 7 am flight out of Dallas and we would get to Des Moines by 9 so I wouldn't have to take off another day of work! I was happy with that. I knew our bags wouldn't make it though. Since she barely got us on last minute like that, there was no time to communicate with anyone to move our bags back to Dallas.
This plane takes off without any problems, finally!! We make it to Dallas; I'm lost on time now because that flight to Dallas was delayed, it didn't leave at 6:30; I think it was 7:30 but we still barely made it on that flight. There was a flight leaving around 8:30pm to Des Moines but I knew we would miss that one.
We get to Dallas. I see that the flight leaving at 8:30 was delayed, it was now leaving at 9:30. We had time to make it; but had to go straight there. I had my doubts that they would be able to get us on it; figured it would be full but I wanted to check anyway. I had already told Shelby that we would get something to eat in Dallas; there were several restaurants to choose from at that airport and she was happy with that.
However, when I go to the gate with this one last flight, they say, yes they can get us on but everyone is already on; they had to have a change in pilots so just waiting on the new pilot. We had to board right then, didn't have time to go eat. This upset Shelby greatly. She was expecting us to sit down eat, then find a hotel and fly out in the morning. This was not a bad plan and looking back was probably something we should have just stuck with. I just saw the opportunity to get back to Des Moines that night; it was going to be after 11pm but it would be ok; we would be back.
So she freaks out, doesn't want to get on the plane, cries, throws a fit and I make her go :(
We get on and sit there waiting; the new pilot finally arrives; we have to sit a good 30 minutes after we board and Shelby is crying the entire time.
The pilot gets on and yes, good, fixing to take off as soon as they check everything. At that moment it hit me, something is going to be broken. Sure enough!
The pilot comes back on and says some microphone is broken, maintenance is there looking at it. So we wait longer, and then some more. Shelby is really upset now; we were supposed to be eating right now.
The pilot comes back on, unfortunately (those words we heard so many times that day), it can't be fixed so we have to get off; the flight will be cancelled. Three times in the same day we had to get off a plane! I think that may be a record.
I had to record this one; there is no way anyone would believe this happened three times in the same day!!
They will have a new plane and new crew in the morning. It will leave at 6 am.
So we ended up having to stay in Dallas anyway; by the time we get off and wait in another long line; the restaurants were all closed. We did find a bar that was open and it had some salads and wraps. I got a wrap and Shelby got a salad; the wrap was actually really good. It was midnight me eating a wrap!
The airline did put us up in a hotel but it was like 1:30am getting there for a few hours of sleep; we had to get on the Shuttle back to the airport at 4am for the 6am flight.
The 6am flight was delayed; the plane was not there but they reassured us it was coming. 6:30 it did finally come and we made it to Des Moines at 8:30am so all good! Finally!
It was the worst flight experience I ever had trying to get back and for Shelby, she doesn't ever want to fly again. However, most flights go well and if there are delays they usually aren't that bad. We just had some awful luck that day. Or it could have been intervention and saving a flight disaster from happening, will never know!
There will be more times where we will have to fly back to Mississippi to take care of things; hopefully it will go better and since it will not be anytime soon; hopefully Shelby will be ok with it next time. She is definately in no hurry to try it again.
Oh and our bags never left Gulfport; since we were on cancelled flights and they put us on one last minute it never registered that we left Gulfport until much later. They did mail our bags out to us. We bought some toothpaste and essentials at the gift shop at the hotel in Dallas (they seem to exprience this a lot since they had a nice supply of goods on hand) and our bags were back to us in Iowa Friday evening.
Also, when we were cancelled in Dallas; there was another plane coming in from Philladelphia who had to make an emergency landing at DFW; so not only was there a huge plane of people going to Des Moines, there was this other plane of people coming in at 11:30pm and stranded in Dallas. They ran out of hotel vouchers; we were again lucky getting one of those by getting in a new line they opened up when walking back from grabbing the sandwhich and salad.
