Travel adventures

As we were travelling, I had so many ideas for how I would write this blog.  Now that we're at my parent's house and relaxing, none of it sees so important anymore.  But, I'll do my best to recap the adventures.  First, I'll say that travelling in a wheelchair is awesome, if there's some good reason you need to do so.  At every airport we went to, a nice person working there shuttled me around, pushed me to the front of the line, or skipped the line all together.  I do have to say I felt a little awkward at times when I caught the, "what's wrong with that girl" looks some people shot over or when peoples gazes drifted to me as I rolled into a room.  However, not having to wait for anything beat all that.  The first check in went super smooth and we were landing in Lima before we knew it.  When we arrived at the LAN desk where we were to check in for the second portion of our air travel, things got a bit sticky.  After reading our medical document, which we hadn't planned on showing to any airline personnel, they told us quite firmly that we would not be flying their airlines without a signed waver from their doctor and mine.  How we were supposed to know this, I have no idea, and my anger increased as Scotty politely tried to make head-way with Peruvian LAN chick and she shot him down several times.  Before we even had the chance to talk with a manager, wheelchair-boy is taking me to the elevator and we are rapidly walking to Gate 17 where a TACA flight is taking off in the next 5 seconds for Miami.  If they got us from La Paz to Lima, I suppose they won't have a problem allowing the terribly scary pregnant lady on again.  So, after a few brief phone calls by nice TACA dude, we are being wheeled down the plank, pushed on, seated and the plane is taking off.  We all end up in the last row by the stinky, crowded bathrooms, but we were together and we were heading to Miami, earlier than we thought.  This was a gift from God.  The almost 6 hour flight passes after some bland food, two cheesy movies and a short nap by Natty and we are in Miami before we know it.  We find, as usual, that Spanish works much better than English for the helpful Miami airport staff and after rolling through customs, we find our luggage was not able to jump on the plane as fast as we were and so we work with Latin baggage claims ladies to come back when it's due in to pick it up.  Then we wait almost an hour for our hotel shuttle and almost give up hope when we see it drive by, inform us that it's already full and that we will need to take a taxi.  At this point, I'm just happy to be sitting outside by the pick-up/drop-off curb in the balmy Miami sunset while Natty rolls happily about on the concrete (cause Mommy's sitting there), getting filthy.  I think she's happy to be off the airplane.  So, nice Brazilian taxi driver gets us to our hotel, we check in and Scotty immediately gets on the shuttle to go back and get our luggage.  Natty and I watch a half hour of TV and I try to do very little since my body is already feeling the stress of travelling all day and being cramped on board a plane for almost 8 total hours.  I convince Natty we should sleep and we both fall into a slumber, only to wake up an hour or so later and realize that Scotty is not back.  Now, this is where I realize how much we rely on cell phones.  At this point, my husband is supposedly at the airport- but what if he never made it?  Why is it taking so long?  Did he get in an accident?  Did he forget the hotel's number so there's no way to call the shuttle to come get him?  Did he get abducted in the not-so-nice part of town around the airport?  What should I do??  He'd been gone for about 2 hours at this point and in my tired stupor, I was imagining the worst.  Thank God, I heard luggage wheels at the door and jumped up to see Scotty with all our bags.  Yay- they all made it!!  Then, he goes out again, gets us Wendy's (cause we haven't eaten anything since bland pasta at 11:30am), we scarf, fall into bed and rest peacefully until morning.

I am praising God that my body held up under the long travelling hours, that our bags all made it, that we had a cozy bed to sleep in, that we are in the U.S.  And, especially, that someone took the "risk" of letting me fly on their plane.  Thank you TACA!  Stay tuned for more travel adventures...