It’s 2:11 AM CST and I’m sitting on the working end of a hard plastic bench in Terminal 5 at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. I’m drinking a 20 oz. Mountain Dew and eating a small bag of reduced fat Gardettos. Mo, Maggie, and Calvin are attempting to sleep beside me, but even though I have zero experience here, it still seems like there’s a surprising amount of commotion this early in the morning. But not to worry, we’re somewhat shielded behind a large Sprint Mobile Broadband advertisement.
Our path into this predicament started before the foundation of the world in God’s hidden purposes. However, we were not made privy to His plan of providence until a bit later when we arrived in Chicago around 7:50 PM. In the schedule there was a short layover before we were to jump another flight to Cleveland where Thrifty promised us a nice Dodge Caravan for our two week stay. We figured to make it to my mom’s house in Wooster around 1:00 AM EST.
As it turned out, our flight was delayed twice, then canceled. We stood many minutes in many lines until we determined the following:
- United Airlines was sorry. (You can decide what I mean by “sorry.”)
- Every hotel near the airport was full.
- Shuttles don’t run to any of the hotels that weren’t full.
- United Airlines was not going to give us a voucher for any hotel anyway.
- Thrifty would have been happy to charge us twice as much to pick up our rental in Chicago instead of Cleveland.
- Which turned out to be okay because United Airlines couldn’t get our bags (which included both kids’ car seats) to us tonight anyway.
- United Airlines only gives out extra-small complimentary diapers.
- The International Terminal has one store open where you can purchase contact solution.
- The International Terminal store does not carry diapers of any size.
- And finally we determined that once you’ve spent the time it takes to determine all of the preceding, it’s too late to get back into any terminal except for Terminal 5.
So here we sit, receiving confused and sympathetic looks from passerbys peering around the Sprint sign. I’ve already lifted my feet for the sweeper and the mop man with the Zamboni polisher sure to follow in a short while. But God is still on the throne and we are as safe and rested as He planned. And even though our next scheduled flight departure is only five ephemeral hours from now, who knows what providence has in store. I’ll let you know when I find out.
UPDATE [11:53 AM EST June 15]: So after my early morning post we did catch the 7:00 AM to Cleveland and arrived in Ohio an hour later. And par for the course, United lost one of our five checked bags (the one with all Mo’s stuff). And then Thrifty had given away all of their vehicles and said that after we waited for an hour they might have something for us…for a lot more money. Eventually they found a mini-van for us and honored the original reservation, and for that we were thankful. United also delivered Mo’s bag this morning.
Thanks to all of you who commented and who prayed for us. Hopefully the difficulty getting here is not an indication of how awful my preaching will be. :-)
We did finally make it to my mom’s house Thursday afternoon. Thanks to all of you who prayed for us.
18 Comments
Dude, so sorry. It’s 1:06am here; I’m up all night grading papers — saw your RSS feed pop up. At least you have your mac. The diapers are a problem … but what about coffee?? That, as I see it, is the pressing crisis. Do you have a starbucks in the terminal?????
SKH. You are my hero. Thank you for the awesome outlook on the situation. Praise God for his sovereignty. I would probably have posted a blog post about it entitled “I’M NOT COMPLAINING SO SHUT UP!”… and then proceeded to complain about the whole darn thing. Thanks for not being me.
Oh and thanks for sporting the Dew and Gardettos (even if they’re reduced fat. SG and I enjoyed RDGardettos on our trip to Oregon… and loved them).
Brutal! Just Brutal! It is pretty weak that they would not give you a hotel voucher. I mean, how can anyone say ‘NO’ to such cute children?
And the Clelands were nestled all snug in their beds. We are literally, not figuratively mind you, literally minutes from O’Hare. Just because of this I’m moving the cell phone to the bed room at night.
I am going to start praying now that our trip tomorrow will be a smoother ride than yours thus far. I don’t think that my kids would be as flexible as yours, and my husband not as gracious as you are being that tired.
Well, thank God for Sprint and their big signs. We will keep praying for you guys.
My deepest sympathies! I don’t travel by airplane very often, but I remember that when I moved here from Brazil, it wasn’t a great experience. I think airports are deliberately designed to be unpleasant. But hey, at least you have a wireless internet connection (I’m assuming).
By the way, the camp video this year will be done using Final Cut Pro on my MacBook. So basically, this year’s video will kick butt. :-D
Gee, I’m glad you have so thoroughly researched how to enjoy the process.
On Wednesday I shot past my personal record for hours without sleep (and almost hitting my wife’s prior record) by being up for 34 hours straight.
So, I’m with you brother, and I hope they at least canceled your flight for more than a disagreement with the FAA on the wording of a maintenance report on the air conditioning. Good luck, and I hope you get some rest soon.
@Crawford: I spent last week’s Wednesday up all night grading papers for my only class, but the difference was that I did have (office brewed) Starbucks all night long. No such providence this time.
@Cleland: Taking your cell phone to bed is a serious life change. I’m not sure that this incident warrants said decision, but thanks for your post-predicament willingness to help!
@Phil: I’m sooooo expecting great things from the FinalCut! Of course, if our trip was a movie I think I’d cut out the airport part.
@Trinian: I’m not sure what my personal record is, though last week I hit the 38 hour mark and decided that was stupid. God made sleep for a reason and I am going to resolve to enjoy it a bit more!
@the rest of the faithful commentors: Thanks for sharing the pain. We’ll see you all in a couple weeks…of course, that is if the Lord wills.
The first day’s video may be so-so, according to the standard of excellence you have set with your Flower in the Rain and other movie credits :-) Just remember that I’ve never used FinalCut before, and Josh Branch will be FireWire-ing the program to my Mac the Sunday we arrive at Cedar Lakes.
So to put it simply: Experience with FinalCut = 0
But learning new software is a small price to pay to get away from Adobe Premiere, although I still consider it to be great software. But of course we both know that everything pales in comparison to Apple :-P
Thank God, United didn’t cancel your flight due to terrorists (like our trip to Italy). Glad and thankful you guys made and am looking forward with great hope and expectancy to you all’s return.
I am sorry to hear of this. I’m glad you made it. United is sorry? Doesn’t that kind of ambiguity get you kicked out of your denomination?
:)
Ok, Sean. This is it. The blog to end all blogs is finally up. And not only that, it’s up on DreamHost, and I must say I am already very satisfied. The one-click install of WordPress was beautiful to behold. Here it is: Crunching Numbers (the .com version of this domain was already taken). I shall be awaiting your thoughts on it! :-)
wow. it’s funny how United was sorry, but they wouldn’t do anything to help…hmm…I’m excited to hear your stories when you return! :D
I’m curious, because I’ve never seen an archives page as cool as yours: do you use a plugin? If so, how can I get it?
I really feel for you guys! But now you’ve got me all scared, I’ll be in that airport tomorrow flying home! I am glad you all made it safe! See ya soon!
My dad works for United as a mechanic/electronics technician. Our family is all too familiar with these “misplacements.” It’s even worse for employees and their families because the policy is that they must fly space available. We can totally empathize with your family, SKH.