I Got Stuck...Part Two...

"I wonder if we'll ever get the hell out of here?" I stated in uncertainty staring at the clock, begging it to go faster.

It was almost 4am and we had slept in the cold LAX airport on black and while marble floor. Very comfortable and accommodating. At this point a cardboard box on a heating grate in New York would be the Ritz Carlton. Jamie and I stared at each other coldly, hating each other, damp sweat and anxiety poured over us. Silence. We just want to get out of here. "This sucks." Was a common response to our deliriously back and forth conversation as we tried to keep our spirits up. 

The clock stuck 3:45am and we packed up out makeshift bedding of carry-on items. With all the strength we could muster, we gathered our bags, which seemed to weight a billion pound now. We had to get through security. Rounding the corner for TSA we could see everyone was already in line. Another 40 minutes later we were there. The first time we went through security check the day before they pulled Jamie aside to rip her bag apart. She had a camera and a bottle of perfume she forgot to take out that set off certain alarm...and I guess she looked like a terrorist. Just for fun, I took her bag and left the exact same camera and perfume in there, we had time and I wanted to see what would happen. We made it through security without any trouble. Feeling safe at the airport yet? Same objects in the bag, no security stopped us. Wow. 

We made it to our gate. We still had another hour to see if we were going to make it out. We are flying standby so there is no guarantee. We got coffees through the endless line at the only Starbucks in our terminal, returning to stare at the clock again.

The plane started boarding. Our building anticipation deflated as the gate agent announced over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to begin boarding our nonstop flight to Philadelphia. This is a full flight and all passengers are checked in. We have a full flight. We will not have room for everyone's carry-on bags, if you have a roller bag, please bring it up now to get it checked."

"Welp, we aren't getting out on this one. Maybe we can take a nap." I said, sipping my shitty airport Starbucks. We made a new carry-on baggage bed and laid out watching the happy passengers board their plane tipping our coffees to them. The plane took off and we waved them goodbye.

"When's the next one?" Jamie asked, pulling out her neck pillow and eye mask. "Oh, I don't know, another 2 hours?" I responded. We took a nap and waited it out...

-YourFriendMatt

The airport can go to hell...

I have 10 minutes to get the next blog out. I promised myself I would post something once a week for a year. I am currently losing sleep, have no idea when I can get on the next plane back to what I call home. Traveling is a blessing. Getting stuck in airports and dealing with traveling is not. During an 8 day vacation I spent 3 days in the airport. 

I was stuck...Part One...

"I left Thursday and I arrived on Saturday. It's only an hour flight. So, no. No. I am not okay." I said to the gate agent.

Over the last few days I got stuck in LAX trying to get home to see my family for a summer vacation. What we thought was going to be a relaxing trip home turned into 3 days of hell in the airport. 

My mother works for the airlines so we fly for basically free. I know, I know. First world problem, right? Anyway, we arrived at the airport Thursday night and expected to jump right on the next flight. This is how it has always worked out and I have never had a problem. Sure, I have missed a flight here or there, but have never spent more that a few hours in an airport. Well, I guess all that good luck ran out because not only did we miss the flight we attended to get on, we miss the next one also.

We had our dog with us and decided to take her out to the baggage claim area, it's not fair to her to hold it while we sit in the airport all night, right? We gather our various, humungous, bags and made our way out to baggage claim. when we to back in TSA looked at us like we were idiots. "Oh, Hey Baby!" The overweight wig-sporting TSA agent squawked at us, "You can't go through here, no sir, we are closed until 4 am, we will see you in the morning baby!" She pointed to the clock that indicated it was 12:15am. We could not get back to our gate for another 4 hours.

It didn't make sense for us to travel 45 minutes back home, to get an hour an a half of sleep to just get up at 2 am to make it back to LAX. So. The bench next to the airport exit door is where we set up shop and made our bed for the night on top of our baggage.

To be continued...

-YourFriendMatt