Embrace the chaos.
I have travelled quite a bit and I know how lucky I am to do so. I really look forward to my trips. I enjoy researching new places to visit and planning my trip. With the number of trips I have taken, I know there is a pattern of events that seem to emerge each time. One event that is a sure thing for me is the pre-trip chaos.
Pre-trip chaos for me looks different every time, yet I know it is going to happen. For my loyal blog followers you may remember the riots in Egypt causing a whole new itinerary, flights etc in 2013, or the doctor’s note debacle of the Antarctica trip in 2016. I have so many more that I could rhyme off, but those are the most notable events. Therefore, I tried to be pro-active and do my best to avoid the chaos this time. I didn’t. My mom had knee replacement surgery this week, which meant that my mind was going in a number of directions. Luckily, my mom is a champ and she is doing well. However, during my one night packing I couldn’t find my vaccination booklets. This translated to me ripping apart most areas of the house (that I had just organized a week ago...when I last had the booklets). A good two hours later, I found them in my car (not sure why I left them there or thought that was a good idea) and had to clean before I could resume packing. All things considered, it was a minor bump in the road. I am just learning that every pre-trip of mine will have ‘something’ happen. As James would say, “It is just Type 2 Fun!”
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This is where I need to give a big shout out to my sister. Last night I slept at her place and she had the unfortunate task of getting up at 4:30am to drive me to the airport. Thank you, Andrea!
We arrived at the airport at 5:30am like we had planned and I am not sure my brain was fully functional yet, as it took me a little bit to make sense of the departures board. However, while I stood there I ran into a former teacher from my school (Michael Volpe) who was headed to Hawaii with his family. We said a quick hello before I headed off to check-in. I really love being forced to get first class seats on my points (there never seem to be any economy seats available to the places I go). I got to immediately check in my bags (they were given priority tags), zoomed through the security scanning, and made it to the first class lounge in record time.
Once there, I enjoyed a small breakfast: latte, berry pomegranate juice, toast, and hard boiled eggs (which always remind me of my trip to Africa with Katie). The lounge was quite nice, but the hazy morning views of Toronto weren’t the best.
I headed to my gate after grabbing a free magazine from the lounge and arrived at my gate as they called First Class boarding. I was so happy with how well I timed everything. I didn’t have to wait at all! I settled into seat 1A and was excited to soon take off.
Nope.
We were delayed 75 minutes due to people not arriving to the airport with enough time to get through security. The pilot explained that their luggage was already onboard and we either had to wait to bring the people or offload their luggage. I really enjoyed the delay. I was able to read my free magazine and the in-flight magazine (I love those). However, I couldn’t believe some of the passengers. When we were only 15 minutes late, a lady came up and pleaded to be let off to go get a coffee from the terminal. They politely refused her and then she tried to pay our crew to go get her a coffee (I believe she wanted something fancy)! Again, they politely refused her. This reminds me of when dad and I travelled to Florida for our Caribbean cruise and people showed up thirty minutes before their flight to the US and then were being called ahead and our wait just kept getting extended. The airlines all advise what time to arrive at the airport, I find it hard to believe that sooo many people had problems getting to the airport on time. I digress. A 75 minute delay would cause me a lot of stress under normal circumstances and I can fully appreciate that some people must be upset if they have short connections. Luckily, I have around a 4 hour layover in Orlando before my next flight. Therefore, I have just been enjoying my magazines. (Side note: 1st row has a lot of leg room and nobody reclines in your face, but you can’t keep your bag under your feet.)
Being that I was in seat 1A, I was first in line to get off. I thanked the attendant for a great flight. He asked where I was going and if I was blogging the trip (he saw me typing and taking photos of Yarnaby earlier). He was so impressed that he opened a cupboard and offered me a KitKat chocolate bar and a bottle of water. Not too shabby!
I wandered the distance to get to where I had to board for Copa Airlines and was surprised at the theme park stores. In theory, you could pretend to have visited all of the tourist attractions without going. Simply bring home a souvenir from the airport. That being said, I did enjoy looking at the Harry Potter items and got some neat ideas for Harry Potter Club next year! I quickly ate my KitKat, drank my water and headed through security.
At the gate for my next flight, I was paged over the intercom. I was confused. When I went to the desk, they asked me where I was going. I explained that I was going to Panama for a couple of days. He could tell from some of my return flights that I was going to Quito, since one of my (many) return flights are from there. He needed my itinerary to verify that I had transport to all of my locations. He then asked me if I had checked bags. I told him that I DID check one bag and it was ticketed to come the whole way through. He said, “Okay, I will call down to the plane to make sure they have it!” He then asked me about other Canadian people he was trying to page and thanked me for my answers. So, I went to sit down.
Fast forward a couple of hours to when I land and there is no bag at the luggage carousel! I went to the baggage help desk and filed a report. The man was very nice and was impressed with how kind I was about everything. To be honest, I knew this had to happen to me at some point. Considering the number of planes I have been on, I have been very fortunate up until this point. At the moment, I am enjoying the Type 2 Fun of not having your luggage (and embracing the chaos). I will be honest, I am curious how quickly this will fade. Stay tuned.
I make it to my hotel (courtesy of a crazy lady taxi driver with great Panamanian tunes blaring) and check in. I am looking forward to relaxing and waiting my luggage delivery. I receive a message from my sister, Andrea, about my sister, Cheryl, being delayed. At the moment, her flight is four hours delayed due to a lightning strike at her airport. Sounds like both of us are going to have some excellent Type 2 Fun stories to share later.
For now, all I can do is embrace the chaos!
For Dad:
YYZ-MCO Boeing 767-300
MCO-PTY Boeing 737-800