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Published: June 29th 2008
The excitement never ends...my plane from Peru left on 6/26 at 11:00 P.M. and landed on time in Ft. Lauderdale on 6/27 at 6:15 A.M., but we had to sit for about 15 minutes waiting for a gate. This gave me (and about 50 other passengers) about 30 minutes to clear immigration and customs before our connecting flights left at 7:00 A.M. I sped through immigration with 25 minutes to spare...SWEET! Then, had to claim the baggage...as the conveyor belt spun, black bag, black bag, black bag, black bag with red bow, black bag, black bag, black bag with pink polka dot ribbon, black bag, big backpack (not mine), medium backpack (not mine), black bag...continue for 10 minutes minutes...carousel stops...many panicked faces...carousel starts again after playing strange fun house music...black bag, black bag...finally my lovely ORANGE (of course), well, actually rust and black backpack emerges...6:50...customs, do you have any plants, liquids or firearms?...um, nope...DONE...running through the airport I race to recheck my bag for the connection...airport dude, "you got six minutes, errrr you might make it honey?" then, it hits me, i still have to clear security...6:55..., 6:56..., security is going quickly, 6:57 clear...me and another dude running for the same flight carrying our shoes in hand through the Ft. Lauderdale airport...6:58, we arrive at the gate..... WHEW!!!!...wait, where is everyone? the door is shut...but there are still 2 minutes...the other dude is CRAZY mad, slingin curse words at EVERY poor Spirit agent in sight, more people start running down the way behind us and other start in on the f-bomb war. I figured, I'm getting back up to ticketing to get a nice happy agent to help me before these people turn all the agents against us. YIKES! In line for rebooking, things were already UGLY! They had accidentally started 2 different lines for the same thing and just as I'd reached the front of my line they were trying to join the 2 lines by taking everyone from my line and putting us BEHIND everyone in the other line. The girl behind me was about to have a crying breakdown...I could see it on her face...I said, "stay quiet...we're gonna move right behind the lady getting served at the desk. when she's done we just plop our passports up on the counter." And, as the mayhem in the lines behind us ensued, we did just that. No problem. Turns out the next flight to Tampa wasn't until 7:00 P.M. Yuck...the girl I met came up with the idea of Orlando, turns out there was a flight at 12:30 and thank goodness for that because the evening flight to Tampa was already sold out anyway. We made a pact that we were in it together -- if one of us could find a ride from Orlando we'd take the other with -- if neither of us could find a ride, we share a car rental. We moved downstairs to get our baggage as it didn't make the flight to Tampa either. We did some "bathroom showering" and chatter for a big, getting to know each other. Jenn is a cool chick; works as an ER nurse and was in Peru for 2 weeks doing volunteer medical work. The rest of the morning was uneventful as we readied ourselves for the trip home.
During the landing of the very short 30 minute flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando, an older Hispanic woman appeared to go into cardiac arrest. The captain made an announcement asking people to exit the plan quickly so the emergency crew could get on. Jenn jumped over the seats to reach the woman and began to do triage in Spanish (she was a pro since she'd just spent the past 2 weeks as the main triage nurse in the village), got her hooked up to some heart monitor and some other stuff...the paramedics arrived and took over...WOW!
On the ground safely in Orlando, my grandparents picked us up & we pretty much crashed on the ride home. I got home at about 5:30 P.M. and was glad to be nagged by my poor neglected kitty, Lyra. Home, sweet, home.
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lori
non-member comment
This is why...
This is why I only travel with you... you stay calm in crazy situations! Love u lots!