Adventure Trek Home

On Saturday morning, we packed up, had a light breakfast and made our way to the parking lot with our bags to be picked up. It was 8:00 a.m. and gorgeous outside. We were all a bit sad about leaving and excited about the plane trip home all at the same time. Kathy came to say goodbye to us and I tried not to cry. It's amazing how you can get so attached to someone in such a short amount of time. Well no surprise I guess, she was the one who walked with us all along the way as we accepted the assignment to Bolivia right up until the night before we arrived in Akron (and actually, she still sent us emails while we were there, from her office that was a stones throw from Asia house!) The kids really grew to appreciate her, especially Asha. And so it's hard to say farewell to someone your kids have grown fond of.

The driver loaded up all our stuff, and we got in a few extra hugs from Kathy before we piled in and headed to the airport. It was a quiet drive as Carl visited a bit with our driver. He was a nice man who chatted on about his grandkids in California.

We got to the airport and checked in and then made our way through security. I was wondering if we would meet up with Bruce and Jaime and the kids, since they were flying to Winnipeg as well via Chicago. What fun it would be if they were on the same flight!

We found our gate and wandered around a bit and lo and behold, who did we see? Bruce and Jaime and the kids. Oh how great! We found out we were scheduled for the same flight and the kids were all just thrilled. Zam and Joel already decided they would sit together. Once we boarded we arranged ourselves so that the boys had their own seat, Kezia and Hizee had another, and we adults were all within visiting range. I was pretty tickled pink myself. How fun is it to travel with friends?
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The first segment of the flight went really well. The girls were tired and they actually fell asleep after they played with their ponies. Joel and Zam chatted the entire time and Zam taught Joel how to blow bubbles with his gum. So they spent the rest of the time practicing. Our flight into Chicago was delayed and we were all a bit worried that we wouldn't make our connecting flight. I kept figuring that we would get off, say in gate F1 and then our next gate would be F3, sort of like our trip down to Akron. Boy, was I wrong.....

We got off the plane and into the terminal at gate F12 at 11:40. Our connecting flight was leaving at 12:08 and we had no idea which gate it was. We herded the kids down the corridor through the crowds of people to find a departure screen. Bruce saw it first, flight 6403 to Winnipeg, gate C1, and it was on time. Where are gates C? We quickly ran with kids in tow to the nearest counter and asked how to get to gate C. The lady said there was a shuttle, so we bolted to get into line. There were about 20 people in front of us. Panic set in. Bruce ran and asked the guy in front how long the wait would be. Oh, well, hmmm...let's see......(getting a bit impatient buddy) maybe 10-15 minutes. ACK! We can't wait that long! So he directed us in the general direction of gates C and said it was at least a 10 minute walk. Well, we had no intentions of walking.

We knew what we had to do.

Carl grabbed his and Kezia's bag and swung her onto his back.

Bruce grabbed his and Jaime's bag and yelled at Joel and Zam to keep up and run as fast as they could with him.

Jaime took Hizee's shoes off so she could run faster and picked up Ziko.

I had my backpack on....and a SLEEPING Asha in my arms.

And then we ran.

We must have looked like a bunch of gazelle's running for their lives; Bruce was running as fast as he could, Joel and Zam were dodging people and trying their best to keep up. The three of them managed to get ahead of the rest of us. I was running trying to hold Asha against my chest without jostling her too much (and she kept sleeping) but my arms were starting to burn from keeping them rigid all that way. Carl was behind me trying to maneuver Kezia's grip from his trachea (kind of helpful to keep it clear while running) and Jaime with Ziko on her back and barefoot Hizee brought up the rear.

As we ran along the moving sidewalks (c'mon people stay to the RIGHT), I was hoping we'd see something marked C. Nope, up another escalator (get out of my way!). Around the bend, another LONG corridor with more restaurants. Finally, as hope started to dwindle, I saw a C...C17 was the gate. We had 16 gates to clear. I found new energy, from where I don't know, but I sprinted with the last of my all. My arms burned, my chest felt like it was on fire, I had sweat running down my back, and my legs were all rubbery, all while Asha continued to sleep.

Want to know how far we had to run? Click here for the map.

We made it at 11:52 to gate C1 and just about collapsed in front of the gate. We made it!!! No time to eat, we hoped the kids would be okay. We quickly got into line and scrambled for our boarding passes only to see on the board.

Flight 6403 - Delayed until 12:40

?????

All that for nothing! Well at least I know for future reference that I can make it from one end of Chicago O'Hare airport to the other in less than 15 minutes while holding a sleeping baby sprinting with a caravan of children. I think there should be some sort of medal for that.

So as it turned out, we had time to get some lunch for everyone. We all sat in silence as we ate. All of us were so pooped. And as 12:40 came closer, the flight was delayed another 30 minutes. Shortly after that it was delayed another 30 minutes. We had almost 2 hours to spend in the airport. What irony!

The kids watched some movies on the computer, as we adults visited a bit. We laughed how this adventure would make some great story for our kids when they got older. And I guess it makes a good story for you reading this right now.

As we were boarding, I noticed a woman looking at me who seemed very familiar. Then it clicked. Her name was Elma and we had gone to Bolivia together, ten years ago! She was from Texas and after our trip, I didn't see or hear from her again. What a small world, eh?

The second segment of our adventure flight was much quieter and went by pretty quickly. We ended up getting off the plane after Bruce and Jaime and so they got through customs before us. They were already gone by the time we were picking up our luggage. Wendell and Shana came to pick us up and the kids chattered on about their adventurous day. Oh what a day it was!