Holiday Trip, Coming Home

We got up early on Saturday morning and said our goodbye's to the family and headed to Des Moines to fly back home. All was running smoothly. We were able to return the rental car with no problems and we arrived in the perfect amount of time for our noon departure.

We soon found out that our first flight was going to be delayed. Des Moines is a small airport and they do not keep mechanics on duty for the weekends. We had to wait for one to come in. We were boarded on the plane by 2 PM and were on our way, or so we thought. Apparently the problem with the ice sensor was not fixed and we were on our way back to the terminal. By 3 PM our flight was officially canceled and we needed to find a new way to get home. Now I already mentioned the small airport and no mechanic on duty, well there is also only one ticket/customer service agent on duty at a time for each airline. This created quite a wait. Saturday was also a very busy travel day and it was hard to find a flight for 4 to get us back to Portland.

We finally were able to get a flight to Denver and we were on our way around 5 PM, hoping that this would be the last of our travel problems. We just had to make our connecting flight in Denver at 10 PM. The agent got us some meal vouchers to use in Denver for our trouble.

The Denver airport was crazy busy. We got dinner for the girls and waited for our flight. 10 PM came and went. By midnight we were finally informed that there was a problem with the emergency slide on the plane, but the delay would not be much longer. The girls were really tired and cranky at this point. Nora Beth finally gave in and fell asleep. At 2 AM we were boarding our flight. Almost home!

We got our hopes up. We taxi out to the runway and the pilot announces that the left engine will not start, so we are heading back to the gate. Instead of deplaning, we stay on board for the next hour and a half while the engine problem is fixed. The problem is finally resolved and we are on our way again. The flight itself was uneventful. No turbulence and the girls slept the whole way.

Just as the pilot was approaching the Portland airport another problem was discovered. The front landing gear is not working. Not what we are wanting to hear. The pilot did his best to explain the situation to us and the flight crew prepared us for a possible crash landing. The pilot had called ahead for emergency crews to be ready for us. We were suddenly very happy that the emergency chutes were now working. We finally stop circling the airport and attempt the landing. When we looked outside the plane windows we could see all the emergency vehicles with their lights on. I joked with Lamar that Bruce Willis should be on this plane - it really looked like we were preparing for some big Hollywood stunt in an action film!

I woke Shianne up from her sleep so she would be in a better position for the landing. Fortunately she did not understand the situation we were in. The pilot lined up for his final approach and the silence in the plane was almost unbearable. You could not even hear people breathing. The pilot was able to get the front landing gear down just in time, but it would not lock into place properly. The pilot did land the plane without any major incident and the whole plane broke out in cheers and claps! We were finally on the ground and safe! The plane was escorted to the terminal by emergency vehicles - quite the grand entrance.

We got out of the airport as fast as possible. The drive home was very slow with ice on the freeway and very thick fog. We were so happy to see our house. We were finally home!