What I expected out of my first Space A flight:
I expected to wait a day or longer in a uncomfortable terminal, I expected it to be a long, bumpy uncomfortable flight with out the normal niceties still left on some airline flights. I expected freezing temperatures and moaning kids.
What I should have expected:
Tori to forget her close toe shoes (cause she did) There to be a bit of stress returning the rental car (cause there was) I didnt expect meals to be offerd, but there were. I should have known they would have a USO that keept the kids (even the teens) happy.
My sweet friend kasey to sew all six of us our own travel pillow, wich came in extreamly handy for other than sleeping (keep reading)
What I got:
First ones on the roll call! Not even a 24 hr wait. (If we were to have to wait there was another flight in a few hours as well) 1 hour 45 minutes to walk to the PX (Cause the car was already returned) to get Tori closed toe shoes. We got back just minutes before we were sent through security and loaded to another waiting room. 15 minutes later they had us pick up our meal boxes, and load onto a bus to be taken to the plane. We sat at the plane for 20 minutes before we were taken back to the waiting room while they fixed something on the plane. We ate our box lunches while we waited for the plane to be done. 1.5 hours later we had eaten a turkey on white bread sandwich with 2 slices of american cheese, a bag of BBQ potato chips and discarded a diet Coke. Some of us ate our m& m's and some saved theres. Then we loaded back on to the bus, went to the plane and after about 15 minutes were loaded on to the plane.
Now, I will do my best to describe the experience from here on out it the most clear words I can think of to give you the best possible idea of what we went through.
We sat on the seats where the cusions were so flat you could feel the wood on your bottom. When you shiffted in your seat the cusion moved with you. The interior of the plane looked like an 80 year old motor home. The sounds on the plane made me ask where was the lady with the big basket of chickens to squak and make the scene complete. The smell was that of a porta john on the last day of the state fair. We literaly shielded our noeses with the pillows Kasey made us. The air conditioning flowed from the edges of the plane like dry ice foams from a coldrun. We were chuckling and laughing at the kids expresions of disbelief that we were going to go any where in this bucket of bolts. We were litteraly crying and how funny this situation was. You may think this is a dramitasation but I am being 100% honest!
We started down the run way (did I mention there were no windows and our seats were all backwards to the way we were flying) and as soon as we reved up for take off we reved back down again. "Uhm.. we are going back to the terminal, one of the locks on our doors came open and we are going to have to go fix it"
YES please!
So we drove back. 2 hours later (with little to no Air conditoning - people opening & shuttingthe stink room door right behind us over and over again) they announced the doors were fixed and they were going to now repair a flat tire that must have been punctured on the attempted take off.
Seth looked up at us from his DS and said "you mean we havent been flying all this time"
We made it off the ground this time- We flew backwards, it a stink pile, with slightly frothy, less than useful airconditioning (I like warmth, Im nearly never hot- It was hotter than Hades)for nearly 9 hours.
I'm glad to say we arrived in Rota Spain at 1:30 in the afternoon local time and not as much as a broken fingernail.
The flight that was taking off after us ...got there before us.
Possitives:
We saved nearly $10K as the price of our tickets was mearly some sweat and a bit of a pain in the neck, but everyone paid for thier own ticket!
e boarder of France.
