Travel back to France, Take 3 (Epically long Entry for an Epically Long Trip)

As I laid down in bed yesterday evening around 9:30pm (France time) I couldn't help but review the past few days of travel/attempted travel that I had experienced. It all started last Monday, June 14. I had just spent the most incredible day ever with 2 of the best ladies on the face of the planet in Chicago. With tears in our eyes and heavy hearts we said good bye as my mom and I dropped Holly and Stephlo off at the airport to head back to Denver. I had to be at the airport just a couple hours after that, so my mom and I went to get some lunch while waiting. Finally, it was my turn to head to the airport.

Stand By Explanation: I was flying stand by back to France. When flying stand by on international flights one must arrive and check in with the ticket agents no more and no less than 4 hours (2 hours for domestic flights) ahead of one's scheduled flight time. You do this to be signed in as one of the first on the stand by list. However, in the world of stand by passengers I travel what used to be known as a D3 status (not sure what the name of this status is these days). There's D1 (highest stand by priority) D2 (2nd) and D3 (last). So all D1s and D2s get on the flights before D3 no matter what time they sign in.

Back to the story, my mom lovingly dropped me off around 12:30pm and I waited for a half hour to check in at one for my flight that left at 5pm. I always have multiple books with me on my carry on for when I travel, but often times there's also much entertainment to be had just watching other people in the airport. So after watching a whole police/fireman/ambulance scene transpire right before my eyes (my eyes pretended not to watch so I wouldn't make the disoriented lady feel self-conscious, but I have to admit that I was side-watching out of the corner of my eyes) and reading my book for 6 1/2 hours (the flight was delayed) my flight was finally boarding. The flight was PACKED. While waiting to board I get the instant play by play from my mom, and it was looking grim for me. It was oversold and there were 25 stand by passengers in line ahead of me. Needless to say I didn't get on the flight.

No problem, I'll just collect my baggage and go to my folks house and try again tomorrow (or so I thought). Turns out that collecting your baggage as a stand by who didn't get on a flight takes FOREVER. To top it off there were a plethora of cancelled flights that day, so it ended up taking 3 hours to get my bag back from the baggage claim area! I had time to finish my book and start another one.

At 9pm that night we drove back to Naperville. Whew! Having looked at the stand by list for the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, etc.... my mom let me know that it was not looking good for flights out of Chicago. So we had to change our game plan. I took Tuesday off, and chilled at my folks house to recoup and then retried on Wednesday. Here was the plan:

1) Take an 8am flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York
2) Pick up luggage in LaGuardia
3) Find and take a shuttle from LaGuardia to JFK Airport in New York
4) Wait around till the 5:45pm flight from JFK to CDG Airport in Paris
5) Arrive in Paris and get bags at 7:30am and wait around till my flight from Paris to Toulouse at 1:50pm
6) Meet Cam at the Toulouse airport at 3:15pm and drive an hour home

All almost went to plan, I woke up at 4:15 am to get to the airport by 6am to check in for my flight at 8am. Only, I didn't get on the 8am flight to LaGuardia! No fear, for there was another flight at 8:45am, so I ran over to that gate...couldn't get on that one either. It's OK, there was another flight at 9:30am...NO ROOM ON THAT FLIGHT EITHER! After checking in with my mom, we decided it might be a better idea to fly to Dallas and then take a flight from Dallas to Paris. I went to speak with a ticket agent to see if they could switch me over, and he informed me that my bag had already been put on a flight to LaGuardia. So, scrap the Dallas plan.

The same agent then took pity on me (I must have looked a little frazzled) and told me to go check in at a different gate quick because there was a plane leaving right now that could take me. I sprinted over to that gate, my backpack bouncing on my back like it did when I was in grade school and I was going to be late for recess, but when I got there the screen read "Boston flight 343". BOSTON?!?!?! I didn't want to go to Boston, my bag was in New York...WHAT THE HELL? Then I overheard the ticket agent say the flight was full to top it all off. I ran back to the other gate pushing fellow travelers out of my way, and told the original ticket agent that I wanted to go to LaGuardia, not BOSTON. He said, "Ya, go back to that gate, they'll take you!" in a nice way, so I realized I must have read the screen wrong.

One final sprint took me back to the "Boston" gate (which still said it was going to Boston) but by this time I wasn't sure which way was up or down so I checked in at the gate. I told the new agent "I need to get to LaGuardia", she said "Ya" and took my name and started typing. She was not the talkative type, so I realized I was going to have to make every question count. As she was printing me off a boarding pass I asked one final time "Is this flight going to LaGuardia?" "Ya" she said curtly...so I got on the plane and hoped to god that I got to where my luggage was.

2 1/2 hours later I flew into LaGuardia. I found my bag which had arrived there 2 hours ahead of me, and I found the bus to JFK in record time. Arriving at JFK I then had 6 1/2 more hours to wait till my Paris flight. No worries, I was armed with a murder mystery book...super creepy and interesting (it's entitled: Still Life with Crows...very good, thanks Elise!). Finally, 7 hours later (the ticket agents were late) it was time to board the plane. I was the 2nd to last passenger put on the plane (for those of you that know my planning ahead type personality, you can only imagine the lessons I've learned through traveling stand by).

When I got on the flight I realized that my radio didn't work. "No worries" I thought, "I'll just read". 5 minutes later they turned the lights off on the flight, and my personal overhead light didn't work either. Stuck in the dark with no headset to watch the movie, I decided that this was a sign that I was supposed to sleep, and so I tried to sleep (I definitely woke myself up once with a snort, so I at least got a couple minutes sleep). After a 7 1/2 hour flight we arrived in Paris, I picked up my luggage and then went to wait for another 6 hours to take my flight from Paris to Toulouse. My eyes were having trouble staying open, I was almost to the point of sleep walking.

However, there was an outrageous occurrence as I checked in for this flight. A lady was wearing a short miniskirt, and must not have been thinking because she bent over from the waist to get something out of her bag and flashed her wedgy to the whole line behind her! The two guys next to me thought it was great...poor lady!

To end this incredibly long entry, I finally got to Toulouse. After waiting for an hour for my bag to arrive (which was pretty hilarious because we watched a bunch of French people get irate and almost crawl into the baggage loading area while yelling at the bag handlers-who were probably on strike due to the new retirement age law), Cam and I were finally able to head home!

One LONG ASS trip to add to my collection!
THE END