Going to the airport

Kyle’s flight was planned to come in on Friday night late, but we had no idea how late it actually was going to be. Daryl, William, and I headed to the hospital to see Mom on the way to the airport and we knew that we’d have to leave about 8:30 from Rochester to grab something to eat quick and then be at the airport in Minneapolis  at 11:00. But just as we were getting ready to leave, Daryl’s cell phone is ringing and it’s Kyle. Oh no. His flight was delayed 7 hours. Yea, 7 hours.  We’ve been in this situation before, it was a couple of years ago, but we all remember it very well. Kyle was flying from New York to Minneapolis that time also but we  didn’t know what exactly was going on with his flight at that time. All we could see on the boards was that his flight was delayed and nothing else. And there wasn’t anyone around to ask either. We waited so long for his flight that  not only did we see the shops close, but we were there long enough to see all the shops open again. Since that time we really try to be prepared. With only being able to stay in the baggage area in the airport to wait, we usually pack a survival gear. Blankets to sleep on the floor or in the car, food and drinks because it’s very limited after midnight, pillows, and laptops with movies. But this time? We were not prepared at all. The weather in New York was over 50 degrees and in Minneapolis there wasn’t anything going on with the weather. So we left the hospital and then decided to drive until we were about 30 minutes from the airport  and got a hotel room. Once we got to the hotel, we tried to find anyplace that had a cheap swimming suit for William to sit in the hot tub. We found a store that was open, but with a very limited supply of stuff in it, they only had  2x shorts and they just weren’t going to stay on his 27 inch waist. The hot tub was out of the picture for the night and we went looking for someplace to eat. We chose a Mexican restaurant because it had the most cars in front of it, and in we went. We laughed because other than us three, there were two other people eating in there. Even though it wasn’t busy, the food was really pretty good. Then off to the hotel to get a couple hours of sleep. We wanted to call Kyle at 1 am to make sure that he wasn’t sleeping and would miss his flight. We found out later that he met a couple of other people in the airport and they took turns letting each other sleep. Now that’s teamwork! Our next alarm was set for 4:15 am and let me just say it was hard to get going again, but we managed to grab our coats and head to the airport. Once I saw Kyle standing by the baggage claim I knew that all the wait was worth it! I can’t describe the feeling, but it’s like you are holding your breath just waiting and finally you get to breath again when you see your kids. Everything is good in our house today.