The Flight

Well, I promised a blog about our trip to Indiana so here goes... This is going to be a 2 parter, atleast.

I have to start from the top, which would be the actual plane ride there, which was something I had been worried about. Our flight was initially delayed about 30 minutes, which is becoming more and more typical in today's airline industry. Once we boarded and were settled into our seats, everything started out smoothly. Garrett was distracted through take-off with new snacks and a new sippy cup with his favorite "Queen" on it (Lightning McQueen, for you non-Cars fans out there). We then got out the always-loved DVD player with an assortment of DVD's to make this 2 hour flight pass by in the blink of an eye. But, what happens? The DVD player won't work!! I made sure to charge the battery for atleast 24 hours prior to packing everything in our carry-on bag, but for some reason the darn thing would not cooperate. So, plan B consisted of allowing Garrett to pretty much do whatever he wanted to ensure a happy flight for everyone involved. This basically included shoving toys down inside the now-defunct DVD player, but hey, he was quiet and happy so in turn, I was happy. This DVD glich should have been a sign of things to come...

About an hour into the flight Keith turns to me and says "Do you smell that?" Well, when you're traveling with a 2 year old that isn't the best thing to hear, but thankfully he wasn't smelling a dirty diaper, but smoke. (Also, not something you want to hear mid-flight...) I initially chalked it up to my husband's over-active sense of smell and his mechanical abilities which allow him to always assume the worst of other mechanics, particularly those who work on planes. But unfortunately this was not to be just a figment of Keith's imagination because about a minute later we see 2 flight attendants "running" up to first class, one grabs a flight extinguisher and another starts pushing buttons on some control thingy that happened to be inside one of the front over-head bins. We see 2 or 3 first-class people standing in the aisle while the fire extinguisher is being used. The pilot then comes on to tell us that there has been an "electrical issue causing an odor" and we would be needing to make an emergency landing in Memphis. Now, the next thing that happens is our plane starts a nose dive (basically) in order to land. I'm not one to suffer from motion sickness, but this was rough enough to even get me a little queasy feeling. Thankfully it didn't bother Garrett's stomach, but it did affect his ears so we were all treated to a little screaming courtesy of my son and his ears that needed popping, while our plane dive-bombed it's way to the Memphis airport. We had to disembark and sat around at the gate waiting to hear something. After about 30 minutes we were told that they were still waiting for a mechanic to come to our plane and check out the problem, so it would be atleast another 45 minutes. Keith and I took advantage of this to get a bathroom break and let Garrett run around a bit. After an hour, we were then told that the FAA had said that our plane was grounded until they could figure out what had caused the smoke, so a plane was going to have to fly to Memphis from Dallas to pick us up and take us on to Indianapolis. This would take 5 more hours and this was "the best that American Airlines can do". As one of my fellow passengers shouted, "5 hours is the best American Airlines can do?! I guess we should have all flown Southwest. You may have to hop and skip all over the country but atleast they get you there!" Needless to say, we were NOT happy. After eating lunch, getting another bathroom break, and trying to keep Garrett from rolling around too much on the floor of the airport, we finally get the announcement (about 6 hours later) that the plane has arrived and we would be boarding momentarily. 30 minutes later, another announcement is made saying that a gauge isn't functioning properly on the new plane and we were going to have to wait for another mechanic to come out and check on it before we could board! At this point we all thought we were being filmed for Candid Camera. How in the world can this kind of thing happen? During this 6 hour stay in the beautiful (yeah right) Memphis airport, we were forced to watch non-stop cable news. One of the stories that was repeated over and over (and over) that day? How American Airlines had broken records on their profits made in the previous quarter. Not something stranded AA passengers wanted to hear. Another fellow passenger (can you tell we were all friends by this point?) said that they made such a profit because they apparently got rid of all of their mechanics. By this point Keith is ready to just ditch this plane, get a hotel room, and then rent a car and drive out the following morning. I was also feeling the same, but I knew that our time with my family had already been cut into, so I didn't want to lose any more if possible. Thankfully the gauge was fixed quickly (probably just ignored due to the almost mutiny they had on their hands), we were loaded onto the plane and then sat there for another 30 minutes. By the time our plane took off into the air, we had been in Memphis for 7 and a half hours! Garrett was not the least bit thrilled to be strapped into his seat yet again. Thankfully the majority of our fellow passengers were drunk from the bar next to our gate and the rest of them were very understanding so we didn't get one dirty look or rude comment resulting from Garrett's lack of enthusiasm. So you might be wondering what kind of compensation American Airlines offers to their passengers in this kind of situation. (Maybe some of you already know because you've been there before.) We got.........(wait for it)........a $12 voucher for a sit-down BBQ place inside the airport! Isn't that just the greatest? And definitely practical for the family with a small 2 year old. So needless to say we didn't enjoy that lovely piece of Memphis heaven.
This is just the flight there, I promise to write more later about my actual visit and the flight home. Thankfully none of them are as traumatic as this one.