A Halloween Adventure in Autism (11/7) Prayer Request for Catie (p.129)

[DisMomAmy]

Hey, DIS-friends!

I'm fighting off a cold or something and slept most of the day away. I guess my body needed the rest!

I'm trying to get all of our pix uploaded onto photobucket and our photopass pix edited onto the CD I'm sharing with a bunch of you.

Hopefully there will be an update tomorrow...

In other news... we're thinking tentatively of February, 2011 (Presidents Week) for our next family adventure. I guess I'll be calling that report the "Presidential Adventure in Autism!"


Kathy

Maybe 2011 will finally be our year to try out February. Even though our week is probably a week after you we could overlap on the weekend & have a presidential adventures in autism DIS-meet!

Hope you feel better!

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

Sorry you are feeling bad. Resting is always the best way to fight things off. I hope you are feeling better soon.

 

[preschoolmom]

In other news... we're thinking tentatively of February, 2011 (Presidents Week) for our next family adventure. I guess I'll be calling that report the "Presidential Adventure in Autism!"

No kidding? So are we!!! (Of course, I have to make our May Trip happen first, LOL!).

 

[mrsksomeday]

Hi Kathy, I am finally here and caught up. I have been sick too but finally starting to feel better. No one does cliffhangers better than you. Can't wait to read more about your trip when you feel better .

 

[Hedy]

Hey, DIS-friends!

I'm fighting off a cold or something and slept most of the day away. I guess my body needed the rest!

I'm trying to get all of our pix uploaded onto photobucket and our photopass pix edited onto the CD I'm sharing with a bunch of you.

Hopefully there will be an update tomorrow...

In other news... we're thinking tentatively of February, 2011 (Presidents Week) for our next family adventure. I guess I'll be calling that report the "Presidential Adventure in Autism!"


Kathy

Hmm...I wonder if I could convince the family that they should go in Feb that year rather than August or April...
I still need to work on the whole Mordie (who is pretty much exactly Tricia's age) will be a high school freshman or sophomore then.

 

[KathyRN137]

Hi Everybody!

Well, seems like sleeping all day Sunday did the trick. The scratchy throat that I thought would herald a cold went away and I feel much better! I uploaded all of our pix onto photobucket today, so they are ready to go. I won't have our photopass pix for a while, though, because I'm part of a share group and will wait my turn to get the CD.

I didn't take any pix until Day One, anyway, so you'll have to put up with yet another unadorned post while I finish up our travel day!
Sorry!



Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

Chapter Three: The Flight that Rivaled Stitch’s Great Escape


Friday, October 30, 2009


We stared at the Delta representative in disbelief. I thought Ed was about to throw up. It was too late to check our bags?? This was almost as bad as missing the flight. The rep looked at the three kids in their Walt Disney World shirts and picked up a portable radio.


“Let me call my supervisor and see what she can do,” she said, hopefully.


Ed and I stood there, holding our breath. Tricia and Catie looked somber. Billy spun around and hummed to himself. Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.


After a tense moment or two she tapped on her keyboard and looked up. “Okay, there’s still time! But, we have to hurry.” Never have five bags been tossed on a scale so quickly. Each got a tag and I got a receipt. “Now, take them around to the baggage handler,” she said. “Have a nice trip!”


Thanks, lady, we’ll try after you just scared the carp out of us!


Ed quickly re-packed the three duffles on the rolling carrier and we all took off in the direction of the arrows, dragging the remaining rolling bags behind us. Ugh, what a pain! On Continental (Newark) the reps just weigh the bags, tag them, and put them on a conveyor belt behind them. With Delta (Kennedy) we had to drag them about 25-30 steps to another area where baggage handler guys put them on a belt. Sheesh! Is that some kind of union deal or something? No time to ponder that question, however, we weren’t in the clear yet. We still had to get ourselves through security and down to the gate.


The security line wasn’t too bad Thank Heaven. We all loosened our shoelaces and tossed our bottled waters. I got partially patted down because I was wearing a big hoodie sweatshirt, but other than that, we made it through uneventfully. (I go through the metal detector first and Ed then has Billy walk through it toward me.) The girls managed just fine... I had warned them not to wear any jewelry, etc. Security seems to be a lot more aggressive at Newark.


As we trotted to the gate, we could hear the announcement that our flight had begun boarding. Whew! Talk about just making it in the nick of time! We had seats in the back of the plane, so we even had a few minutes to spare. Passengers seemed to be moving into the aircraft at a snail’s pace, so once we were safely in the end of line, Ed handed me his backpack and announced that he needed make a quick run to the men’s room. After three hours in the car I rather needed a little bio break myself, but he called it first so off he went. I couldn’t very well leave the kids alone, so I resigned myself to waiting until we got on the plane. Yuck... I hate using airplane facilities!


Ed made it back about a minute before we reached the podium. We all handed over our boarding passes. “I’ll take Billy to the bathroom as soon as we all get settled,” he offered. It was going to be quite a while before that happened. Perhaps it was because we were seated in the back of the plane, but I have never experienced such a slow boarding in my life! We stood in the aisle for what seemed like fifteen minutes waiting for people to stow their carry-on luggage and sit down. I was glad that we had nothing larger than backpacks that could be shoved under the seat in front of us. It was amazing how many people were trying to fit larger carry-on bags into the overhead compartments. (Probably because Delta charged $15 per checked bag.)


Finally, we reached our seats, which were in the third row from the back. I had not exactly been pleased with the seating choices when I originally booked this flight, but the important thing was that we were all seated together. Tricia and Catie took the two seats to the right of the aisle and Billy, Ed, and I took the three seats on the left. Before we even had the chance to buckle his seatbelt, Billy announced, “I have to go to the bathroom, please!” At least he didn’t have very far to go! As promised, Ed took him and they were back in an instant. Then it was my turn.


When I came back and settled into my seat, I leaned over to Ed and whispered, “I know its supposed to be some kind of thrill to join the “Mile-High Club,” but I can’t imagine how anyone would want to have (relations) in a stinky airplane bathroom... Ewww!” Ed just shrugged. It must be a guy thing!


Eventually, the seatbelt signs turned on. We received our safety lecture and I elbowed Ed and motioned for him to look at Billy, who was dutifully studying the laminated emergency instructions. The lights dimmed and the captain came over the intercom to greet us and tell us all about the balmy weather conditions. He assured us that we would arrive on time. I checked my watch... we were already running about twenty minutes behind schedule. “Don’t worry,” Ed reassured, “He’ll crank up the engine and we’ll be there ahead of schedule... its always that way on the flight down... there’s a jet stream.”


I nodded as I gave him and Billy some gum and popped a stick into my own mouth. The girls were already chewing theirs and had opened their books to get started on some homework. Soon the engine roared and the plane shook. Billy grabbed my hand. I had to disconnect his ipod, but I left the earphones in place to dim the noise. We took our place in line on the tarmac. With another great roar, the plane rolled forward, faster and faster, until it reached enough speed to lift us gently into the air.


I said a few Hail Marys. I’m not afraid of flying, but take-offs and landings always make me slightly anxious, so a little request for Divine Intercession never hurts! Billy was sitting by the window and as the plane climbed, he slid the shade open so he could look outside. To my disappointment, the windows in our row were blocked. “We’re sitting right over the engines,” Ed shouted over the noise. We leveled out and I expected the noise to diminish, but it didn’t. The continued roar of the engines made conversation difficult... it even made reading difficult. I looked across the aisle and the girls gave me quizzical looks. We had never ridden in a McDonnell Douglas MD88 before... Continental planes (Boeings) were never this noisy.


“I told you, he’s gonna gun these engines all the way to Orlando,” Ed shouted. “He’s got to make up time.” As soon as it was allowed, I turned Billy’s ipod on to help drown out the noise. He seemed to be fine once his music was playing. Ed put his ipod on, too. Having no electronic device with me, I asked him for the bag of squishy earplugs he had newly purchased for the trip. Using hand gestures, I offered them to the girls but, surprisingly, they declined. I squashed a piece of the blue foam into each of my ears. “Ahhh, that’s better!” Again, I motioned to the girls to use the earplugs, but they chose not to. Oh well, you can lead the teenaged horse(s) to water...


I settled into my chair and tried to recline. The seat moved about one inch, tops. I fiddled with the button, but the seat did not move back any further. I looked around. No one else seemed able to recline, either. I sighed and closed my eyes. That long ride in heavy traffic had worn me out. I was too tired to read the book that I had brought... I decided to just sit there and rest.


The good thing about sitting in the aisle seat is that it’s easy to get in and out of. Unfortunately, the bad thing about the aisle seat is that you get bumped a lot... by passengers going to the bathroom. Was it simply the fact that we were three rows from the back that made it seem like dozens of people needed to use the bathroom once the seatbelt sign was turned off?


I soon found myself sincerely grateful that Billy and I had used the facilities early on. The door to one of the cubicles opened and the smell of human excrement immediately wafted into the plane. I almost gagged (and I’m a nurse!) Trust me, I’m no stranger to bodily odors, but this was just horrible! I looked over at the girls... they were grimacing and holding their noses. People in the rows behind us were coughing and uttering various unkind things about the creator of the stench.


Was the toilet backed up? Apparently not, because passenger after passenger came down the aisle and both bathrooms were being used. Every time that one door opened, however, the awful stench poured out. My eyes were actually watering. I took out a citrus-scented wet wipe and held it up to my nose like a Southern belle with a perfumed hankerchief every time I heard a door open behind me. Ed laughed and made fun of me, but it was better than holding my nose!


After about an hour, the air seemed to clear a little. I dozed fitfully. We hit a small amount of turbulence and I woke with a start. The girls had given up on homework and were reading magazines. Oh well, it was almost ten o’clock anyway. Billy was doing great with his ipod; and was still humming along with the music happily. What a relief! One of the flight attendants arrived with microscopic bags of peanuts and packages of hard cinnamon-sugar cookies. Having missed our dinner, we all tore into them hungrily. Billy wanted his goldfish crackers, and I was glad that I had brought a bag. About ten minutes later, the attendants with the beverage cart caught up and we were able to wash our snacks down with water and/or soda. I actually felt better now that the foul odor had dissipated and I had had a little jolt of caffeine.


At 10:30, the captain announced that we were approaching Orlando for our landing. Ed was right... we hadn’t been scheduled to arrive until 10:45pm. Despite a delayed departure, we were still early. The seatbelt light flashed, the engines whined, and the Hail Marys were said. When we were finally given the all-clear signal, we didn’t rush. There was no need. It took just as long for our fellow passengers to gather up their things and de-plane as it had for them to get settled back in New York. I didn’t care, though. We were here!


Orlando International Airport, I love you!


Up Next: Our First Time Using Magical Express!


Kathy

 

[jordanyosh]

Phew! Glad you did not get separated from your bags!

Foul odors...

ME.....hmmmm wonder how that went for you....

 

[All7OfUs]

Yikes! That sounds like one peeeewy flight!! Blech!

Mile High Club? Have never gotten that??!! Of all the places, I can't think of anywhere worse!

Sounds like all in all the flight was smooth- just the checking in that was a little dicey. I wonder if that lady was playing check-in agent games. Maybe that's workplace entertainment?

But, all's good you've landed and are ready to get to your happy place!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Oh goodness after hearing about the foul odors on your plane I will NOT complain about the awful McDonalds smell that cycled over and over again through our plane ride home. You poor souls having to smell that over and over again . Thank goodness it went away after a while.

 

[eandesmom]

Oh what a stressful and stinky start!

I am crossing my fingers ME went ok......

 

[Charleston Princess]

Thank goodness you have arrived at the Orlando airport -- between the bathroom smells and the noise, I can just imagine that you were literally counting the minutes until landing!!!

 

[praisehisname]

Thank goodness for citrus-scented wipes! Glad you made it safely, but it sounds as though you are exhausted! Hopefully ME goes smoothly and you can get to bed quickly.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I took out a citrus-scented wet wipe and held it up to my nose like a Southern belle with a perfumed hankerchief every time I heard a door open behind me. Ed laughed and made fun of me, but it was better than holding my nose!

And I don't get the Mile High Club thing either...

Glad you finally made it to Orlando!

 

[RunningGirl]

It took me a while to get the Stitch reference - but now I get it - gross! I hate sitting in the back of the plane. I'm glad Billy was okay with it. Now get yourselves to Disney!!!

 

[annnewjerz]

Your flight sounds....well, I guess it could have been worse, right? At least you arrived at MCO safe and sound. I do have to say, just imagining sitting right next to the bathrooms and smelling that made me gag a little.

Can't wait to hear more and hopefully your first trip on the ME was uneventful and easy, although considering they don't do bags past 10:00pm, I believe, I have a sneaking suspicion there might be another curveball coming our way.

 

[jess98ac]

Wow!! Sounds like quite an adventure. So glad you guys made it though. Sorry your flight was stinky, that's the worst!!

 

[irish dancer]

Well, I guess the benefit of getting behind on my DISing is that I didn't have to wait long for the cliffhanger.

Sooo, glad you were able to check your bags - what a relief! Sorry you had a stinky flight, I'll have to keep that in mind when booking future seats.....

Can't wait to hear your first impressions of AKV!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Oh my! People laugh at me because I carry a travel-size spray bottle of Lysol. Now they know why!

 

[Gabrielsbigtrip]

Posting so I can come back and read this

I have been DIS MIA!

Hoping to get caught up on some trip reports very soon (and post our last day to our report).

How dare life get in the way of my DISing