Day 2129. After 4 hours of sleep, the alarm went off at 5:30 am, and Randy got up. I had set another alarm for 6:30 am for myself, but Randy got me out of bed before that. I got up and went to work, emptying the dishwasher, making sandwiches with the remaining bread and a bunch of other things that needed to be done. Randy started taking our 5 suitcases and 5 carry-ons and three car seats to the entrance of the building. He was nearly done with that when our friend from church arrived with the church van to take us to the airport. We're very grateful to the church and our friend for making that possible.
We locked the apartment and all walked to the entrance of the building. Randy and our friend started working on putting the car seats in and getting all our luggage and wheelchair into the van. We sure filled it up, every space there was. Then we started our half-hour ride to the airport. It was 7:30 am. There was a lot of traffic in the beginning, crossing the Danube, but then we were able to go fast. By about 8 am we arrived at the airport. Our friend got a parking stop at our terminal, and they started unloading while I left to get two luggage carts. Randy put the luggage on them, and we said good-bye to our friend. Then we started pushing the carts through the entrance into the building.
Tammy and Emmy both had their new carry-ons that they were pulling. Randy and I each had a cart that we were pushing, and then there was Sammy. Two Austrian Airlines attendants came by and offered to push Sammy which was very nice of them. It was a great help. They walked us right to our check-in desk and left.
We were at the "special assistance" desk, and both were occupied, when we got there, so we had to wait a little bit. Then it was our turn. Tammy was right in the face of the lady helping us there, asking questions about everything, like she tends to do. I tried to restrain her a little bit. After we were done checking in, we were told to walk over to the waiting area until someone was going to come and help us. Randy returned the carts, and then the guy already arrived. He was pushing Sammy's wheelchair while we were all following him. It was very convenient.
We walked and walked, went through the machine where you have to scan your boarding pass, then walked some more and came to passport control. We continued walking and got to security. When Tammy went through the scanner, it beeped, so she was pulled aside and they used a handheld scanner to go over her whole body. She later said she had been scared. And Randy's diaper bag was pulled aside, and it took a long time before they got to it. They said it had been a random check.
Then it was time to move on. We walked and walked until we got to the gate. There was a long line there to get into the waiting area as they were checking each person's passport and eligibility to travel to the US but our helper took us straight inside and then took our passeports to one of the guys checking. Then we got our passports back and sat down. The kids were on their tablets while waiting to board the plane. Our helper had left. When it was finally time to board at about 10 am, we were the first ones to show our boarding passes, and a new helper came and pushed Sammy down the walkway to the plane. Once there, they had another wheelchair to take him to his seat, but we told them that Randy could carry him. Then we got on the plane and walked to our seats.
Tammy, Emmy and I had the three middle seats, with me in the middle, while Randy and Sammy sat across the aisle from us. The kids were very excited about the video screens in front of them and started checking everything out. Emmy quickly found a soccer game he liked, later he found another simple game he really liked, and I ended up also playing it and competing with Emmy. Tammy had another game she liked, but she really watched a lot of movies - five of them during the flight that lasted nearly 10 hours. Emmy did more playing and less watching movies. Sammy mostly enjoyed turning the reading light on and off. He sat with Daddy for most of the flight, but did come to me during the middle for about an hour or so, which gave Daddy the opportunity to sleep a little. He was playing with the screen then too.
They soon served us lunch but there were no choices. Everyone got pasta with cheese sauce, a little salad, a piece of bread and butter and a cake. Emmy ate a little of the pasta, but Tammy did not. They ate very little. And so Tammy was soon saying that she was hungry. Thankfully we still had some bars from Austria with us that they were all eating. From Air France, I'm not only used to a choice of menu, but also snacks and drinks you can go get any time during a long flight like that. They'd always have icecream you could get. And so Emmy and I went to the back to get some. However, there was no open snack and drink area. The flight attendant looked at us like what are these crazy people talking about and only gave us something to drink. Emmy was disappointed.
None of the kids ever slept on this flight as it was during the day, only Randy and I closed our eyes as possible. And as the flight went on, Sammy got impatient to arrive. Only one time he cried for a while - it was great that it was only once. And he lost his favorite cookie (Kekz, an audio chip for his headset). Randy kept looking for it and couldn't find it. Once we had landed, we let everyone get off board so that Randy could look for the cookie more easily. The flight attendant then lifted the seat up, and it was right there.
We landed in Chicago at 1:30 pm local time, which was 8:30 pm Austrian time, so bedtime for the kids. They were excited to be in America. We walked off the plane and had to wait for the wheelchair. Then we were given an assistant which I was thankful for. She started pushing Sammy, and we followed her.
I remembered again from two years ago what a terrible airport Chicago is. You have to walk forever, and go outside and go through security and everything again. So much time, and so much effort that you'd better have a long layover. We had 7 hours, so plenty of time. We followed the lady and came to immigration first. Thanks to being in the wheelchair line, we did not have to wait. It was our turn right away. The guy took all our pictures, asked a few questions, and stamped our passports.
Next came the baggage claim area. We didn't have to wait long for our luggage to come out. We put it all on two carts and followed the lady to customs. The lady gave the guy a form, and we continued walking. We saw all the people waiting for loved ones and knew we had left the secure area. We walked and walked and got to the little train connecting the terminals. We got on the driver-less train - which was cool to the kids - and rode it from one end of the airport to the other. Then we got off and started walking again. Whenever there was an escalator, she'd take us to the elevator. The picture shows Sammy pushing the button to call it.
Next we reached security. Once again we had to get all the elecronics out and put everything into boxes that then went on the conveyor belt. The kids could leave their shoes on, but not the adults. Sammy was pulled to the side with the lady, while the four of us went through the machine to then pick our stuff up again. I felt for him being all alone. The lady then said that one of us could go back and stay with him, and Randy went. Like they had done in Vienna, they were checking the wheelchair for traces of explosives.
Once we were all through and had put everything up again, we moved on. But first I took a picture of Emmy in front of the powerful fan as I remembered I had done the same two years ago.
We continued walking and walking to get to our gate. But this is where things were NOT like two years ago. The lady took us to a room that was only fo people needing wheelchair assistance. Two years ago we had to wait at the gate. The guy at the desk there was really nice and funny, and Tammy did her thing again, asking questions and being noisy which he didn't mind. When he saw how long our layover was, he actually said he could get us on the next flight in just an hour. I now wished we had said yes, but we said no as our luggage wouldn't have made it, and I already know from experience that it takes days for it to be delivered to rural Mississippi from Memphis airport. He then did move us up to the middle of the plane from the back for our 8:30 pm flight.
It was nice to be in that small room with comfy chairs and baskets of snacks everywhere, as well as free water. The kids were on their tablets, but they were clearly getting very tired, like we all were. I had put my legs up on my carry-on and then took Sammy and had him lie on me. He doesn't usually sleep on me, but he was soon fast asleep on me. I shifted him a little as time went on as I was starting to get uncomfortable and eventually asked Randy to take him, so he continued sleeping on Daddy. Randy and Tammy were both sleeping next to each other. At one point she was woken up and moved to the table next to her chair. A woman had her phone lying there as she was charging it and came over to save it from Tammy who looked like she was sitting on it. Randy told her to get up to let the lady take her phone, and that's what started her meltdown. I had expected it at some point. When Tammy gets this tired, she can have a fit like that where there is nothing you can do to calm her down. She was crying hard and hitting me and trying to hurt me. I then needed to go to the bathroom, and she ran after me to go with me. She cried the whole way there and back, drawing everyone's attention to her. Once back at my seat, she suddenly calmed down and lay down on me, where she continued sleeping. Sammy was still sleeping on Daddy. Emmy was on his tablet and not interested in sleeping though I encouraged him a few times to.
Just before 7:30 pm someone came to take us to the gate. Randy put Sammy into his chair and took Tammy to carry her. Once we started walking, she woke up and was able to start walking herself. We kept walking until we reached our gate where we sat down. Boarding was to supposed to start at 7:50 pm. Sammy was impatient to get on board. But then they announced that the pilots were delayed, and they had to find new pilots. Our departure was moved to 9:30 pm. We were not too happy.
Finally boarding started, and we were the first ones to walk through the walkway to get to the plane where we left the wheelchair, and Daddy carried Sammy inside.
It was a smaller plane with three seats on each side of the aisle, and we had the whole row. Tammy wanted to keep sleeping while Emmy was proud that he hadn't slept and said he was going to stay awake. Emmy sat by the window, while I was in the middle. Tammy cuddled up to me and slept the whole flight. And it wasn't long until Emmy was asleep on my other side. I then helped him lay flat on his seat. I got a little sleep myself, but woke up to get a snack and a drink. Sammy had slept so long at the airport that he didn't sleep on that plane.
At 11:30 pm we finally landed in Memphis, an hour later than scheduled. The kids were cranky when I woke them up. We walked off the plane and had to wait for the wheelchair to be brought up. Then we walked down the gangway and into the airport. This time we didn't have a helper. The airport was already pretty abandoned as we walked and walked and walked to go to the baggage claim area. Our bags were already going round and round, and Randy got them off while I got two carts. But one of the five suitcases was missing. Clearly, all the suitcases had come out. We had no choice but to go to the United Airlines lost baggage office. We walked over there, and it was closed even though I could see people inside. There was a sign saying you should go to the ticketing counter. As I was leaving, an airline guy arrived and asked me whether I was missing a bag. I said yes, and he invited me to come in and look whether it was maybe there. So I went inside, and it was right there. Thank God! It was one of the suitcases with the carseats inside. The guy let me take it and walk away with it.
We loaded all the bags on the two carts and walked to the elevator that we had to take to go one level down. Once down, we had to walk a long distance to the car rental agencies. I asked Tammy to push Sammy and put her carry-on on top of my cart. It worked very well like that.
It was 12:15 am when we reached Hertz and there was no one there - neither at the regular counter nor a the gold counter. I looked at the board and couldn't see our name there either. That was strange. They usually wait for your arrival when your plane is late, as they have your plane number and can see when that is the case. What were we going to do? I looked in my Hertz app, and it was strange to me that our reserveration wasn't there. It wasn't either when I clicked on the Hertz email I had received before leaving Austria. That was worrisome. What had happened?
We walked back to the regular counters where there were still people working at the other rental companies. We checked with them - one had no available cars, and the other one had prices that were more than double what we were going to pay, therefore unaffordable. We also found out that Hertz would open again at 7 am. But that was a long time off. Randy suggested we'd spend the night at a nearby hotel, so I looked on my phone and found two hotels that had late check-in and available rooms. But only one had a shuttle. I called them and was told that the shuttle wasn't running after midnight. They told me to take a taxi/Uber. Very funny given all we had! I lost the connection but it was clear that it was not doable. It looked like there was no other option but to spend the night at the airport.
