Holiday Travelling

Traveling in the wintertime from anywhere North of the frost line is always a challenge.

Then add to the recipe:
1. Holiday travellers
2. Amateur hour travellers  (what do you mean I can't bring my water/$19 Starbucks/soda with me? I just bought it outside the security area.)
3. 15,000 cranky children
4. Big winter storm.
5. And me.

I started out the day by wiping out in the parking lot on a patch of ice. One minute I had feet, the next minute I didn't and wound up flat on my back.  After catching the breath that was knocked out of me, I call out to the spouse: "Help?"  To which spouse replies, "Where the hell are you?" To which I reply, "Try looking down." To which he replies, "Oh shit, are you broke?"  Maybe?  Since it was one of those sudden loss of traction meets gravity moments, I went down so quick I didn't have time to really tense up, otherwise I most likely would have broken my wrist.  As it turned out I had a pretty nasty gash on my hand and bruised up both my hands, my elbow and a few lower vertebrae. However, it was a 'lucky' fall.

Ouch!

Unfortunately, the day before we had to leave there was a big storm that cancelled all the flights out of the KC area.  So, we arrive at Oh-Dark-Thirty to catch our flight and I see a trillion people standing OUTSIDE the terminal to Southwest and about 3 TV news vans.

I think-oh, shit-bomb threat-this is seriously going to screw up my arrival time in Key West. Because it's ALL about me.

It was actually about the sheer numbers of travellers due to two days worth of holiday travel trying to get out.

Thanks to having Southwest A-List status, we were able to jump all the lines and got on the plane fine.  There were several people that were losing it on the TSA folks and I thought--most thankless job in the world.  However, a smile and a Happy Holidays from Tim and I really seemed to be appreciated.  Random acts of kindness, people.

Now for the Southwest Luvfest.  We took off late from KC for our trip to Houston, they held the plane due to the long lines.  Very nice gesture.  They made up time in the air, but we arrrived in Houston with 6 minutes to our next flight.  Seven of us tore across the terminal--Airport Mathmatics: The distance between gates is exponentially proportional to the amount of time you have to get to you next gate--to arrive at the gate with nobody around and everybody boarded..

I have already posted my lack of enthusiasm for Delta's customer service practices, if this had been a Delta flight, we would have been SOL and given a lecture about close connection times to boot.

But we were on Southwest, so the gate agent comes out from the jetway, big smile, THERE YOU GUYS ARE, we've been wating for you! and gets us on board.  HOW AWESOME WAS THAT.

So, the KC seven get on board, we head for a stop/go to Tampa, able to move up seats during layover. Smiles all around, meeting our fellow adventurers, and all making a bet that our luggage was still in KC.

Oh, no. This is Southwest, our luggage made it.  I don't know how they pulled off that Christmas miracle, but THANK YOU SOUTHWEST!!!!!  I luv you!