Oh my, what a trip!
First we got off the park-and-ride bus at the terminal. A couple steps later, I noticed we didn't have the car seat, and the bus had already left. Since we didn't have "spare" time, I went to check-in while Kurtis followed the information desk directions (ask the next park-and-ride bus radio ahead) to get the car seat. While standing in the motionless United check-in line, one clerk pulled everyone on our flight out for expedited check-in. I had to shuttle all of our bags to the desk while holding Karston, who had gotten tired of his stroller. As a result, my check-in conversation was short. Last name? Number of seats? Number of checked bags? ID? OK, here are your boarding passes.
Since I hadn't seen Kurtis, I went back to the information desk where we had first stopped, to let that clerk know to send Kurtis to meet me outside Security.
And Security is where he was waiting for me. I gave him his id and rushed through, but he got hit with 3 strikes. First time through, whoops, wallet and change in pocket. Whoops, cell phone in pocket. Whoops, metal belt buckle. Three strikes, so he's pulled aside for wanding. I'm holding Karston while trying to catch all of our stuff, I have all boarding passes, and we get paged on the intercom. Argh! I leaned over with his boarding pass, and he said he'd get the car seat. I threw all of the loose stuff in the stroller pocket, threw my carry-on in the stroller, and headed to the gate. I couldn't run with Karston (too much jolting for him), so Kurtis passed me. We did make our flight, just barely.
I was told to find any open seat, and took the first one I found: next-to-the-last row, next to a heavily tattooed man (I liked the PacMan, power pellet, and ghosts tattoos on his fingers); Kurtis sat right behind us. Karston was pretty good for this flight, once I took away the safety brochure because he was waving it wildly and was trying to whap the napping guy next to me. Takeoff nursing. Play through naptime despite more nursing. Nurse for descent, and THEN he feel asleep! He actually slept through landing, and the next half an hour on the O'Hare tarmack waiting for an open gate to disembark. So although we landed early, we obviously didn't have much time to spare inside the O'Hare terminals.
On this flight, Kurtis asked me a critical question that made me sick to my stomach. Where's my wallet? Well, I threw all small pocket items in the stroller pocket. So keys, belt, wallet, sunglasses, all went in the pocket. But did I remember to empty that pocket before we gate-checked the stroller? No, I was too busy trying to catch up to Kurtis and not jostle our child too badly. So his wallet, importantly containing his ID, was floating loose in the cargo hold. Ugh. I felt really bad. Plus I didn't want to fly back alone. Luckily the stroller folds up so tightly that everything stayed in the pocket.
The flight attendant had announced connecting gate information, so we knew we should catch the shuttle bus over to Terminal C. In 10 minutes, I found and went to the bathroom while my boys stayed in the exact same place in line for the shuttle bus. I found an idle gate agent and got walking directions to Terminal C. Since Karston was spaced out in his stroller, I could run this time; Kurtis couldn't run with the car seat but he hussled well. In fact, we played tag: Kurtis went faster on escalators, I went faster on level ground.
We raced to the next gate, only to get the bad news. That flight was oversold, and the rushed check-in at home meant that we did not get boarding passes or seat assignments for the second and final leg of our trip to Madison. So showing up later because we were stuck on the tarmack meant we were the first ticketed passengers who were turned away.
I wanted to get to Madison in time to check in so that I could use conference wireless to ask my mother to freeze the breast milk in our frig that will spoil before we get home. I explained to the gate agent that I wanted to make it my conference in Madison by 4 PM before registration closed, and that I wasn't happy that I got turned away with such expensive non-standby tickets. Note to all: be nice to your gate agent, no matter how steamed you feel! She let me turn down a bus trip to Madison (3 hours on a bus with a one-year-old who hasn't napped?), and found 2 seats to Madison on American. She was an angel!
Of course, the American flight was back in the terminal we had just left, so we had to hoof it all the way back. In a hurry again. Running made me feel weak and light-headed because I hadn't eaten in over six stressful hours. We checked in for the last two non-exit-row seats (no children in exit row), bought sandwiches while that flight boarded, walked on, and switched seats to be together.
So finally at 2 PM (eastern time, the time our stomachs were on, not counting that breakfast was a bit early), we got to eat our sandwiches. Usually a delayed meal makes both of us quite grouchy. But we both knew we were doing our best today, so we weren't snapping at each other.
You can probably guess what happened next. We got to Madison uneventfully, but our luggage didn't. We took our United baggage claim stubs to the United baggage office, filled out the form, and at the very end, Oh, you came in on American on your last leg, they have to track down your bags. Great! Of course, at first American tried to send us back to United with our United baggage claim stubs. American said to call at 6 PM if we didn't have our bags, and to say Representative to the system.
No issues renting a car, driving to the hotel, or checking in. I requested a mini-frig to store baby food, and we were early enough to get one. We were starting to smile and relax.
We didn't have bags by 6 PM, but only one other flight came in from O'Hare, so it seemed too hopeful to us. Kurtis called, and no one knew. We bought toothbrush and toothpaste, but with hope, no more.
