There have been many obstacles during this trip that have come in our path. The Lord has been so very good to help us navigate through rough waters.
Airport Follies at their best.
The first ones were airport/travel related. If something could have gone wrong with tickets for half of the team, they did. Half of us had all of our boarding passes printed out at the Charlotte Douglas airport before departure, half of the team only had boarding passes to Miami printed out, not on to Quito. We just didn't all realize this until we got to Miami airport and were trying to figure out where to go.
Miami airport is not an airport I enjoyed at all. That speaks for most of the team I believe. It was nuts there. Absolute nuts. The American Airline concourse was about 2 miles away from Concourse J where LAN (Ecuadorian) airline was. After a sky train and about what seemed like 12 people movers later going from concourse to concourse we got to concourse J. Sigh.... we're here!! Finally! Our plane from CLT to Miami was an hour late, thus time was of the essence. Ok let's get our boarding passes at the ticket counter for LAN airline. (remember some of us already had our boarding passes for LAN). The ticket counter for LAN airline didn't open until 3:30pm. Oops.... Not good!! It was after 1pm and our flight was at 2pm. We had about 45 min. to scramble and figure out what to do. Do we go back to the American Airline desk 2 miles away? Do we have time for that? We didn't think so. So we went to the Customer service desk downstairs at LAN and they could do nothing for us. Yes, that's right. NOTHING. This was an American Airline issue. We were going to miss our flight.
But wait!! Jalayne reminded us that some of us had our boarding passes for the flight to Quito. I did, she did and Jeannine did. We could still make our flight. The rest of the team would have to go back to the American Airline counter and get booked on another flight.
So the three of us took off for the Security checkpoint. We had less than 20 min. to get on that flight. Thankfully the team told the LAN customer service agent to page the Gate where our plane was and tell them that 3 of our team members were coming and to hold the plane. As we were going through security, taking off our shoes, unpacking my laptop, liquids and all of that fun stuff, the security staff were telling us, "Quito? You have to run! Run!" Ok, ok, run they say, I've got to put my stuff back in my bags, put my shoes back on and my fanny pack around my waist. We're running on adrenaline at this point.
Jalayne never put her shoes back on. I didn't realize this until we were half way down to the gate. She showed me her shoes in her hand and said she didn't have time to put them back on. She'd been running in her socks the whole time. We had a good laugh about that one many times. My favorite airport memory for sure. We had to run from the check point to the very end of concourse J. From Gate 1 to gate 18. We could see it waaaay down at the end. When we got there of course the gate was closed down. The staff had to open up the gate for us. After many messages sent back to the plane we were let on the airplane. I couldn't believe we made it. I wasn't sure we were going to. I was praying and praying as we were standing at the ticket counter at the gate. "Lord please oh please let us make this flight."
As I walked onto the plane and started down the aisle, the first person I saw was Tim Gale smiling at me with the warmest friendliest smile. Then I saw Marie and the Blombergs. I told Tim as I was walking up to him, "I've never been so glad to see a Fort Millian in all my life." He just laughed. But honestly it was the truth. I felt like I was in a movie the way we had to sprint to the gate like we did. Jalayne in her socks.... We laughed and laughed about that when we sat down in our seats. It could not have been more than about 7 or 8 minutes after we sat down, the stewards did their last seat belt check and the plane took off. I was still in a bit of shock we made it.
We had left half of our team behind us, knowing there was another flight to Quito an hour or 2 later, but having no clue if there were seats available on that flight. Would they even make it to Quito that night? We had no clue.
What ended up happening was the 2nd half of the team did have to back to the American airline desk and get on a new flight, with American. They did not go on another LAN flight. They made a flight that was an hour or so later. Their luggage made it on our flight, but everyone made it to Quito that evening safe and sound. A bit frazzled around the edges, but so happy to be together as a team and in one piece. God was good to get us through those tremendous airport hurdles.
Going back home was not as eventful. The boarding pass issue was not totally resolved we thought. In actuality everything was as originally planned. The original LAN flight from Quito to Miami did not change even though those that missed the original flight from Miami to Quito were not on the list for the return trip Such confusion! Thank goodness it all worked out and we didn't have to deal with American Airlines again. I do not recommend them at all! Sorry about that, but they were terrible.
LAN airlines was great. A beautiful new plane, and the service was great on the plane. This was nice because on the way back we all needed some rest. Spending 5+ hours in the Miami airport from 1am until about 6am was not ideal. Thank you Mendy for the doughnut holes! And seeing the teenagers so happy to have their hot cocoa was great. What was so difficult on the return flight was one of our team members that was so sick she required a wheel chair to make it back. I was recovering from sickness myself and another team member was starting to get sick. Sickness hit us so hard this trip.
A strange and scary thing that happened to me in the Quito airport is worth writing about. One of the airport security guards came up to me at the gate for our flight to Miami and told me I'd been selected to have my checked bag investigated downstairs. "Please come with me." he said. I responded with "You want me to come with you alone??" I looked over to our team who were sitting off to the side away from me and told them what was being asked of me. Sean our team leader yelled over to me, "You are not going alone, I'm going with you. Tell him I'm coming and tell him to wait." I told the guard to please wait. Sean came with me and the guard said Sean could not come, just one person, me, because it was my bag. Sean said, "No, She's not going alone. Protection." He pointed at himself. He was trying to say all of this in broken Spanish. The guy looked at him and conceded, "Oh alright." So down we go to the baggage area outside. We go through a door that once it closes you can't get back out. I wasn't sure what to expect. When we arrived, we saw about 50 men just standing around doing not much of anything. A handful were handling luggage. Most were just shooting the breeze. Good grief! Sean was telling me over and over again, "You see, you didn't need to be down here by yourself. No, there is no way they should ask anyone to do this." It was scary down there. I was so glad Sean was with me. Not that anything would have happened to me alone, but then again you just never know.... We had been told to go no where alone in Quito by our translators and that the airport was not a a super safe place.
Apparently there were liquids in question in my bag. Ok.... so I showed them my 3 oz. bottles of shampoo, and lotion etc. They sent my bag back through the xray machine. Had me open it up a second time at a different counter. They looked at things a bit more thoroughly. Finally they said. "It's ok, no problem." Gee thanks guys. They even asked for Sean's passport. Why would they need that? They wrote down his passport number. He told them, "That's her bag, not mine." Strange very strange. As we were walking back up, I asked Sean, "What was that song we heard in the coffee shop before coming here? 'God is watching over Me' by the Newsboys?" Yes, that song was playing in an Ecuadorian coffee shop. Incredible. I told Sean God was working through him, and he was was my guardian angel at that moment. Thank you God for Sean!!
Coming out from the baggage loading area, we were body scanned by metal detectors. That makes 3 times in one day I'd had metal detectors on me. Sigh.....
Funny thing is when I got home yesterday and opened my suitcase. I opened the outside zippered pocket on the front of the suitcase. In there I had stuffed a liter sized Gatorade bottle at the last minute because I didn't know where else to put it. Was that the mysterious "liquid" they were looking for?? It was large. The weird thing is that they never thought to unzip that outside pocket. And I had forgotten I had put it in there.
