Not For the Faint of Heart

Sorry this post is so long. If you want to just skip to the good part, we made it to Beijing, but not before some pretty intense moments.

Here's the story: As mentioned, our friend and former home teacher Dave Richens, helped us get to China using his employee companion passes on United Airlines. It saved us a lot of money and was very generous of him. Since we are flying stand-by, it has also been an adventure. We decided the cost difference was worth it, even though some would call us crazy.

Dave has taken very good care of us, closely watching the flights. Since it is spring break, a lot of people are travelling and the planes are full. Well, he called Saturday afternoon about 1:00. He told us the flight we were planning on for the next morning at 5:50 am was filling up and he was concerned we wouldn’t get on.
He gave us some options and the best one seemed to be to try for a flight that left that evening. That meant we had to leave in 1 ½ hours! That threw us into emergency mode, it was quite an abrupt change, but better than being stuck in the airport and not making it to Beijing on time.

Amazingly, we were ready. Rachelle had prepared so well that we were pretty much packed and ready to go. We were still frantic tying up loose ends, but it was possible.

I even had time to give the boys and Rachelle blessings before we left. There were a few tears as we left, from both kids and parents. We wanted a little more time to say goodbye for 3 weeks. We were also planning to go to Spencer and Drew’s first flag football game at 2:00 on Saturday. I feel bad about missing that.

Spencer played quarterback. The report we got later is that they were awesome. They won the game something like 32 to 12, and Spencer did great in his debut as QB!

Back to the story, Dave was waiting for us at the airport with beads of perspiration on his forehead because we were cutting it so close.

Well the Chicago flight that Dave hoped we could get on was full, and we didn't get on, but our luggage did!
The other option through Denver was also full, but the flight to San Francisco, that originally looked overbooked, had available seats, so we went.

As we left he promised to do all he could to get our luggage to SF on the next flight. He even talked to a supervisor to make sure it would happen. Unfortunately they didn’t follow through. Long story short, our bags were supposed to get to SF at 10:00 am so we could claim them, then check them into our noon flight to Beijing.

When we got to the airport we found out that only one of our bags made it on that flight, the other two went through Denver and wouldn’t be here until about 11:00. Yikes!
Would we have time to claim them, run to United International, check our luggage, go through security, and run to our gate and catch the flight?? I started to sweat.

What should we do? I got advice from the ticket agents and all they could tell me is “you can try”. I didn’t even know if it was possible, but as I listened for any kind of inspiration I felt it would work out, so we put our faith to work.

As we waited at the baggage claim carrousel I got increasingly nervous. As Murphy would have it, our bags, marked priority, came out last. The seconds ticked away and my adrenaline was pumping. I tried not to think about the fact that this was the only plane out of SF to Beijing today, and if we didn't make it...
When the first bag came out I took it and ran to the international ticket counter with instructions for Rachelle to follow as soon as the second one appeared.

Just as I was finished checking the first bag, Rachelle ran up, we got both bags checked, whew.
Now on to security. By now it was boarding time, oh no, look at the line. Thank goodness they let us go through the priority line. We even told a few people on front of us our predicament, and the let us go ahead. If you can believe it, I was selected for the full body scan and a pat down. After getting dressed again, (shoes, belt, watch, etc.) we were off running (me sprinting, Rachelle running) to gate 96.
It was a little confusing to get to the gate because it was down an escalator. As I got near the escalator, I hear over the PA “this is the final call for flight 889 to Beijing…” So I head down the escalators , “whoa, I better find Rachelle!” (remember me sprinting, Rachelle running). For a split second I thought I lost her. As we breathlessly get to the gate the nice lady tells us, next time we really should give ourselves more time! Believe me, we will!

I was never so greatful to walk down a boarding ramp.
As we got to our seats and sat down I was just so grateful it all had worked out, we made it. And, we are in business class!

The impression was that it will all work out, and it did.

What a rush, those adrenaline junkies that do crazy things just for the rush ain’t got nothing on us!

Through it all Rachelle was amazingly calm. As we were leaving one of the many ticket counters we visited she said, “Thank you so much. And I hope no one treats you bad today.” He said, “well thank you!” not quite knowing how to respond.

That is the kind of woman I married. I am a lucky man.