My First Adventure

And so it begins...

The wonderful baggage claim are at SLC International

The park...and WAIT

This is only after eight hours so Im still faily happy

By the time ten hours hit...I looked like this

Look what I FOUND

The typhid medicine survived!!!

The Wal-Mart parking lot that served as my temporary hotel

I am leaving for Africa in a week and a half and it seems as though I am already getting a taste of what I will be experiencing in the countless hours I will be sitting in airports in the next few weeks.  Here is a timeline of the events that took place on Monday the first of December:

 

8:45 AM Doctors appointment- this is where the doctor proceeded to poke and prod, I also was lucky enough to receive two shots and blood work.  LET THE FUN BEGIN

 

10:30 AM Purchase suitcases in order to be able to pull of the Africa DC switch and fight with the pharmacist regarding the $250 dollar bottle of malaria medication that insurance refuses to pay for.

 

11:00 AM Pack my typhoid medication on ice (it cannot be out of the refrigerator as it is a live vaccine), finish packing my bags.

 

11:45 AM Head to LAX

 

12:15 PM Arrive at LAX thinking that my flight takes off at 1:20 PM

 

12:20 PM Find out via the lovely skycap that my flight actually takes off at 1:05 and enter the massive security line (I mean really I have never seen it this bad).

 

12:30 PM Beg the airport personnel to let me through the line with full knowledge that I am about to miss my flight, to no avail.  I am stuck waiting.  I accept the fact that I have missed my flight.

 

12:40 PM A stranger’s kind deed- she lets me cut in the front of the line…I may make the flight after all.

 

 12:59 PM I make it through the security line and board the plane! Phew. My worries are over.  I have made it….or so I thought.

 

3:30 PM I arrive in Salt Lake City and realize that my luggage is lost.  Much to my chagrin the lady in the baggage office informs me that the loss is due to my “late check-in” and that my luggage should be on the next flight I am told I must return at 7:00 PM

 

6:00 PM I return to the baggage claim thinking that it is 7:00 PM (the clock in my car was off an hour don’t ask why) the lady looks at me like a loon and tells me I still have an hour.

 

6:30 PM I have been hit on twice.  Still sitting in baggage claim…still no bags.

 

7:15 PM I find out that the flight that is supposedly carrying my bags is now delayed until 9:45 PM

 

7:20 PM I have moved my party to the park and wait where I will park…and wait.

 

9:45 PM Enter the airport once again to search for my bags.

 

10:18 PM Bags in CUSTODY!!

 

10:20 PM Pay for parking for the third time of the day…I believe that is a record. Begin journey back to Logan.

 

11:30 PM I am so exhausted I cannot make it the rest of the way without crashing the car.  I sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

 

1:25 PM I finally make it to my bed.  Oh sweet sleep how I love you.