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Fantastic Friday Without Children on the Baggage Carousel

Fantastic Friday Without Children on the Baggage Carousel

by | Jul 10, 2015 | Uncategorized

This Fantastic Friday post relives air travel moments that included warnings to keep children, not mine thankfully, off the baggage carousel.This post brings back memories of a most eventful trip to Idaho in July of 2011. So it was the perfect Fantastic Friday post for a week filled with air travel to Idaho once again. Wary travelers will be relieved to hear I saw no children on the baggage carousels in airports.

After an entertaining and/or character building (depending on your perspective), virtually un-re-create-able travel adventure, we are finally home.

Hallelujah!

Perhaps the deer that darted onto the busy highway between Sand Point and Coeur d’Alene in front of our driver’s car was an omen. But since the car missed the deer or the deer missed the car (depending on your perspective), we blithely continued onto the Spokane airport and arrived there with time to check in and eat lunch. We even snagged a free pizza since whoever ordered before us never picked up theirs.

Buoyed with the anticipation of snarfing down free pizza once we landed in Denver and ran to catch our connecting flight, we blithely walked to the gate and waited to board our Southwest Airline flight to Denver. Maybe strange overhead announcements were an omen of what lay ahead, but we and the other passengers only laughed harder as the warnings progressed:

ANNOUNCEMENT #1: It is against safety regulations to allow children to sit on the edge of a baggage carousel. Please do not allow children to sit on the edge of Baggage Carousel #2.

ANNOUNCEMENT #2: It is against federal safety regulations for children to sit on the edge of a baggage carousel. When it starts moving, they could be injured. Parents, be sure your children are not sitting on the edge of Baggage Carousel #2.

ANNOUNCEMENT #3: This is the third warning about allowing children to sit on the edge of the baggage carousel. It will start moving in 2 minutes, and they could tip onto the carousel or lose fingers when it starts moving. Please remove your children from the edge of the baggage carousel immediately.

ANNOUNCEMENT #4: Parents, this is your third warning. (Apparently, the announcement maker had lost count.) Get your children off the edge of the baggage carousel immediately. The luggage will be arriving soon. Remove your children immediately.

We were still chuckling about the announcement 2 hours later on our approach to Denver, but the laughter dried up when the pilot mumbled, “The Denver airport is closed due to a severe thunderstorm, and we’re being rerouted to Amarillo, Texas.”

Amarillo, Texas?

No one was laughing fifty-five minutes later when we landed in Amarillo. No one laughed when the pilot continued his mumbling. “The storm has moved out of Denver, so we’ll get gas and go back. All your connecting flights have been delayed, so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to make them.”

Hallelujah!

Except that half of the 200+ passengers were in line to use the 2 tiny airport potties, and  the good news went right over our heads. The other half were staring out the windows at the oddest looking aircraft we’d ever seen.

“Looks like a dolphin,” said the young woman next to me. “And it has NASA printed on it.”

“Or it could be Shamu,” I suggested. “Who knew there was a Sea World on the Amarillo, Texas airport? Or we’ve been rerouted to a hush, hush NASA site for flight training.”

Pretty soon, we were on our way and arrived in Denver just in time to board our connecting flight to Omaha, snarfing free pizza as we ran.

Hallelujah!

That flight was uneventful, as was our late night drive home and our arrival at 3:30 AM. We were asleep in our beds by 4:00 AM. Our luggage, which did not make the connecting flight is supposed to arrive tomorrow. And I cleared up the NASA Shamu mystery with a little online research. It revealed that our NASA Shamu is really a NASA Super Guppy. Which leaves only two loose ends to wrap up right here, right now.

To the person who ordered and forgot to pick up the Hawaiian pizza at the Dave’s House of Pizza Kiosk: It was delicious. Thank you so much for sharing your supper with us.

To anyone who was in the vicinity of Spokane Airport’s baggage claim area between 2 and 4 on Tuesday afternoon: If you know what happened to the kids on Baggage Carousel #2, please leave a comment. We could use some closure and a final hallelujah!

Keep Your Children Off the Baggage Carousel

Keep Your Children Off the Baggage Carousel

by | Jul 20, 2011 | Out and About

After an entertaining and/or character building (depending on your perspective), virtually un-re-create-able travel adventure, we are finally home.

Hallelujah!

Perhaps the deer that darted onto the busy highway between Sand Point and Coeur d’Alene in front of our driver’s car was an omen. But since the car missed the deer or the deer missed the car (depending on your perspective), we blithely continued onto the Spokane airport and arrived there with time to check in and eat lunch. We even snagged a free pizza since whoever ordered before us never picked up theirs.

Buoyed with the anticipation of snarfing down free pizza once we landed in Denver and ran to catch our connecting flight, we blithely walked to the gate and waited to board our Southwest Airline flight to Denver. Maybe strange overhead announcements were an omen of what lay ahead, but we and the other passengers only laughed harder as the warnings progressed:

ANNOUNCEMENT #1: It is against safety regulations to allow children to sit on the edge of a baggage carousel. Please do not allow children to sit on the edge of Baggage Carousel #2.

ANNOUNCEMENT #2: It is against federal safety regulations for children to sit on the edge of a baggage carousel. When it starts moving, they could be injured. Parents, be sure your children are not sitting on the edge of Baggage Carousel #2.

ANNOUNCEMENT #3: This is the third warning about allowing children to sit on the edge of the baggage carousel. It will start moving in 2 minutes, and they could tip onto the carousel or lose fingers when it starts moving. Please remove your children from the edge of the baggage carousel immediately.

ANNOUNCEMENT #4: Parents, this is your third warning. (Apparently, the announcement maker had lost count.) Get your children off the edge of the baggage carousel immediately. The luggage will be arriving soon. Remove your children immediately.

We were still chuckling about the announcement 2 hours later on our approach to Denver, but the laughter dried up when the pilot mumbled, “The Denver airport is closed due to a severe thunderstorm, and we’re being rerouted to Amarillo, Texas.”

Amarillo, Texas?

No one was laughing fifty-five minutes later when we landed in Amarillo. No one laughed when the pilot continued his mumbling. “The storm has moved out of Denver, so we’ll get gas and go back. All your connecting flights have been delayed, so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to make them.”

Hallelujah!

Except that half of the 200+ passengers were in line to use the 2 tiny airport potties, and  the good news went right over our heads. The other half were staring out the windows at the oddest looking aircraft we’d ever seen.

“Looks like a dolphin,” said the young woman next to me. “And it has NASA printed on it.”

“Or it could be Shamu,” I suggested. “Who knew there was a Sea World on the Amarillo, Texas airport? Or we’ve been rerouted to a hush, hush NASA site for flight training.”

Pretty soon, we were on our way and arrived in Denver just in time to board our connecting flight to Omaha, snarfing free pizza as we ran.

Hallelujah!

That flight was uneventful, as was our late night drive home and our arrival at 3:30 AM. We were asleep in our beds by 4:00 AM. Our luggage, which did not make the connecting flight is supposed to arrive tomorrow. And I cleared up the NASA Shamu mystery with a little online research. It revealed that our NASA Shamu is really a NASA Super Guppy. Which leaves only two loose ends to wrap up right here, right now.

To the person who ordered and forgot to pick up the Hawaiian pizza at the Dave’s House of Pizza Kiosk: It was delicious. Thank you so much for sharing your supper with us.

To anyone who was in the vicinity of Spokane Airport’s baggage claim area between 2 and 4 on Tuesday afternoon: If you know what happened to the kids on Baggage Carousel #2, please leave a comment. We could use some closure and a final hallelujah!

Smarter Than a Fourth Grader

Smarter Than a Fourth Grader

by | Apr 7, 2011 | Out and About

Every time I travel by airplane, my empathy for the Plains Indians grows. Those of you scratching your heads, and wondering what air travel and the Lone Ranger have in common probably didn’t teach social studies to third and fourth graders. I’ll explain so you can go back to believing you’re smarter than a fourth grader.

Third and fourth graders read lots of legends. One describes how the nomadic life of Plains Indians was limited by how much people could carry from place to place. Some enterprising tribes hitched sled-type carts to dogs to haul more stuff. But for the most part, New World travelers were limited to the indigenous equivalent of one personal item and one carry on item, with all three ounce bottles of gels and liquids in zippered plastic bags, when they were out and about.

The more I travel by air, the more I feel like a blonde Indian squaw packing for a trip across Ioway or the Dakotas. First I pack every single thing necessary for a delightful and profitable trip:

  • Scentless soap root, youth-enhancing mud facial masks, dried fruit for regularity.
  • The five sets of quilled buckskins picked up at Eddie Bauer’s 70% off sale.
  • Slip on/slip off moccasins for security check in.
  • Dressy moccasins for speaking engagements.
  • Comfy, fur lined undergarments.
  • A generous supply of soft leaves and cattail fluff for hygiene purposes.
  • All the latest technological communication gadgets – firewood for smoke signals, blades of grass for whistling, dried gourds filled with seeds and the like.
  • A variety of sharp sticks so I can trace promotional copy in the dirt along the way.

I try to lift my luggage.
Impossible.

Reality sets in. I unpack and repack, unpack and repack, discarding treasures until I’m able to tote that barge and lift that bale. Then off I go, traveling light with the clothes on my back, and two pieces of luggage containing a handful of dried fruit, a bundle of firewood and one sharp writing stick. Talk about limiting my business prospects!

The Plains Indians’ prospects didn’t improve until Old World shipwrecks, sailors, and soldiers unleashed horses in the Americas. Once the Indians tamed Trigger and turned him into a pack animal, life started looking up for the Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Crow, and other tribes.

I’m thinking the horse solution will be a hard sell to the airlines. They could say no immediately, even. So my career advances at a snail’s pace thanks to air travel luggage restrictions. The slow down gives my inner squaw plenty of time to appreciate the New World amenities that rendered soft leaves and cat tail fluff obsolete.

Now, your average fourth grader has no idea of what I’m talking about. On the other hand, you are growing increasingly thankful for toilet paper, Kotex, and Depends the more you think about soft leaves and cat tail fluff.

You really are smarter than a fourth grader.