It had been awhile since I'd had a good travel mishap, so I guess I was due. I just didn't realize yesterday that it was going to be a two day affair.
Yesterday I flew out of Denver to head to D.C. for our annual trip to the Outer Banks. I slept for the first part of the trip and then started watching some episodes of The Last Kingdom that I had downloaded onto my phone. I was totally engrossed and completely oblivious to what was going on around me.
At around the time we were supposed to land, we landed. I took my phone off of airplane mode and texted my mom.
"Just landed."
"Where?"
I found this response extremely confusing. I looked out the window and realized we were not at Dulles Airport.
I took my headphones out of my ears and turned to the lady sitting next to me.
"Do you know what's going on?" I asked.
"Yeah, we were diverted to Louisville because of weather in D.C. They're on a total ground-stop. Nothing is taking off or landing there."
Oh.
I felt like a moron, but also recognized that it was kind of funny.
"Are we going to be getting off the plane?"
"No, they're refueling and then we're going to wait until we get the go-ahead to take off and head to D.C."
We waited for a while. People were standing up to stretch their legs, chatting with their neighbors. Everyone was pretty chill. The flight attendants handed out snacks and drinks.
The pilot came on the intercom and announced that the ground-stop had been extended another hour. Everyone was bummed but there was nothing to do but wait. So we waited some more.
After about 20 minutes, he came back on the intercom and announced that the ground-stop had been lifted early. Time to go!
We finally arrived in D.C. two hours later than we were supposed to. I was reunited with my children, whom I hadn't seen in four weeks. They astounded me both with how beautiful they are and with how tall they are getting. I gave my parents big hugs and kisses. I helped my mom finish packing the cars. We watched an extraordinary basketball game and then went to bed, preparing to head out early in the morning to beat the bad traffic.
I went to sleep late and woke up early - about 3:45 a.m. Denver time. I drove with the kids in my dad's car and my mom and dad drove in her car. For three and a half hours, the drive was uneventful. Down I-95 past the sites of famous Civil War battles - Manassas, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania. Stopping as we always do for breakfast at the McDonald's at mile marker 118. Through Newport News and Norfolk and Chesapeake, past the battleships and aircraft carriers.
The kids slept and bickered and played Connect 4.
Then, about 15 miles from the North Carolina border, Zeke tried to adjust his seatbelt and got stuck.
He was in the front seat with me and had wrapped it around himself to move the shoulder strap so that he could sleep more comfortably. He unclicked the belt at the bottom but discovered that it was twisted around his body and he couldn't get it loose - the mechanism that catches the strap at the top (like in the event of a crash) was stuck and we couldn't get it to release. Every time we tried, it got tighter and tighter around his waist. He was in pain and freaking out.
We came up to a section of road that had a wide flat median - I pulled over and ran around to his side of the car to try to help him, but nothing worked. He was getting more and more upset and I felt helpless to figure out a way to get him loose.
There was a police officer and a guy from the Virginia DOT nearby - they saw us and came over to try to help. We pulled and twisted. We even removed some of the covering to the section of the door where the belt mechanism was housed, trying to find a bolt or a button or something that would release it, but there was nothing. In the meantime, Zeke was in terrible pain and discomfort.
Finally, the police officer took out his pocket knife.
"Say the word and I'll cut the belt."
"Go ahead and do it," I replied. "I don't see that we have any other option."
So he cut the belt and Zeke was free.
The officer also summoned the emergency rescue folks, because apparently that's the protocol.
Zeke thanked him profusely and said he was OK, but the officer insisted that we stay so that the paramedics could check Zeke out to make sure he was fine.
Within five minutes, there was a big fire truck, an ambulance, and another police rescue vehicle pulled up around us. The paramedics ushered Zeke into the ambulance and checked his vital signs while the police rescue guys took down our information.
It seemed like overkill, but apparently that's their process.
"Well, this is a new one for me!" the police officer said.
"Tell me about it," I said.
Finally, we were given the OK to leave. The police officer even directed traffic away from us so that we could pull out into the road without any difficulty.
A couple of hours later, we were at the house. We unpacked and headed to the beach for a bit before some bad weather rolled in.
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| Josie rides her skim-board before the storm. |
All is well. It's raining and thundering outside but comfortable inside. Everything's fine.
But man, it's been a hell of a weekend.
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