I just got back from a quick trip to Boulder, BY MYSELF, no husband and no babies. First time I've been away from the boo bears overnight since they were born. It was quite something. I missed them desperately but even so, it was nice to be unencumbered, just for a couple of days.
On Tuesday I flew out of our own little Inyokern Airport, which was an experience in itself. Due to restrictions imposed by Edwards Air Force Base (which planes from Inyokern fly over), there are only 3 flights in and 3 flights out of the airport each day. They go to and from Los Angeles only. I decided to take the 5:07 AM flight, because it connected to the 7:18 flight from LAX to Denver, getting me in at 10:39. It hadn't occurred to me that I would have to get there by 4:00 AM, which meant I had to get up at 3:00 AM, which since the time change had occurred 2 days previously felt like 2:00 AM. But I made it. When I walked in the door at 4:00 AM, there were several people already sitting in the lobby.
It's a teeny tiny little airport. There's the ticket counter, and a rental car counter. There are maybe 4 rows of seats, maybe 6 seats per row? There's an x-ray machine and platform set-up for TSA. When I checked in, they told me to put my suitcase (which I was checking) over near the x-ray machine. Puzzled, I complied. Soon after, two TSA employees began hoisting suitcases up on the platform, opening them, and going through all the contents in full view of the dozen or so passengers. I was really glad my suitcase wasn't stuffed with pornography, contraband, or (more likely for me) chocolate.
After a while they announced that it was time to go to the airport annex, so we all got up and marched to another room where we had to go through security and then sit on more chairs until it was time to board. "Boarding" meant going out into absolute pitch blackness and walking quite a long way to the little airplane, with its brave little propellers. I wondered how many passengers they lose at that stage -- you could easily wander off in the dark and no one would know.
I had been looking forward to the view from the plane, but of course it was completely dark at 5:07 AM and all I could see was occasional lights when we flew over towns. We had a flight attendant, a man, and at one point he announced that he would be bringing a beverage cart around. I waited eagerly for this cart but never saw it, though I heard him rattling around in the back. As we approached Los Angeles he said he would be coming around to pick up people's trash, and he walked quickly down the aisle holding a large plastic bag which not one person threw anything in. Now I may have been dozing when he went down the aisle with his cart, but I'm suspicious that it never happened at all.
I successfully made my connection at LAX and flew to Denver with no problems. At Denver International Airport I collected my bag and got on the 11:15 bus to Boulder, all without incident.
Coming back two days later was something else again. My flight was supposed to leave Denver at 8:17 AM on Thursday, so I got up at 4:30 AM in order to catch the 5:27 AM bus (half a block from my house). That all worked well, but I was surprised to see so many people on the bus. Where were all these college students going? We arrived at DIA around 6:30 AM. I hurried to check my bag and then went to the security line. Denver is such an enormous airport, it is always smart to go through security as soon as possible because it can take quite a while. Well, that was particularly true this day. The line for security was so long, it stretched way back around the baggage carousels. I had seen it that bad only once before -- one Christmas when we'd had a lot of snow and everyone was told to go to the airport early. But what was going on this week?
Spring Break. A concept I'd almost forgotten about. All around me were obnoxious 18-22 year olds looking forward to a week of heavy drinking. Our plane to LA was enormous -- a 777 with 9 seats across. I was in row 38 (out of I think 40), in the exact middle of the 9-seat row. Oh well, I thought, it's only 2.5 hours. It turned out that our flight was delayed (mechanical problems), so it was 3.5 hours. But what a nice group of seatmates I had! No Spring Breakers whatsoever (although there were some in front of us, rudely reclining their seats into our faces). All five of us had a great time chatting, despite my worries that I would miss my connecting flight.
Then the horrors of the Los Angeles Airport. I did miss my connecting flight to Inyokern, and this was a problem because Rocket Boy was supposed to get on that plane and take it back to Los Angeles (on his way to Denver), so who would pick up the babies from daycare? The next flight to Inyokern would get me there at 8:00 PM; daycare closes at 6:00 PM and the twins were supposed to be picked up by 5:00 PM. I would have to drive instead.
So I called my secretary and told her to cancel my flight, then spent ONE HOUR in line waiting to talk to Customer Service (one very ill blond woman, coughing relentlessly) about the whereabouts of my suitcase. She sent me to Baggage Services to retrieve my suitcase. Baggage Services (one older Chinese woman) told me my suitcase would be sent on to Inyokern. "In 20 years I work here, always happen that way." On to Travelers Aid to ask where the car rental desks were. "Catch the shuttle out there!" an eager elderly Chinese man told me. When I told him I wanted to compare rental agencies, he directed me to a wall kiosk with phones that I could use to call the agencies. Inyokern only has two agencies -- Dollar and Avis -- so those were my choices. I could not reach Avis on the kiosk phone, so went with Dollar. Caught the shuttle, stood in line for half an hour, and finally rented a very small red car (a Chevy Aveo) which the high desert winds on Highway 14 blew around mercilessly.
Hours later I drove into the Inyokern Airport. It was 4:00 PM and the airport was closed. It closes every day from 1:00 to 5:30 PM. I parked my tiny red rental car in a Dollar spot, pulled out all the paperwork and my stuff and locked it. That was all I could do. There was no drop box outside the lobby. I retrieved my own red Subaru (parking is free at the Inyokern Airport, incidentally, and everyone can park within a few 100 yards of the lobby), dumped my stuff in it, and drove off to pick up the twins from daycare.
That evening, after dinner, the twins and I returned to the Inyokern Airport, which was open now. A small storm had kicked up out of nowhere and it was raining and blowing. I left the twins in the (locked) car and ran in to ask about my suitcase. The lobby was almost empty. I put the rental car keys and paperwork in the lobby dropbox and then explained about my suitcase. The woman behind the counter looked it up online and said "It's on the plane" (which was due at 8:00 PM, in 45 minutes). I said I would be back for it in the morning and went home to put the babies to bed.
Later that evening the woman called me to tell me my suitcase had arrived, and the next morning a different woman called me to tell me the same thing. I imagine those women behind the counter at the Inyokern Airport have a certain amount of free time.
The babies and I went back to the airport around 10:00 AM on Friday to get my suitcase, which the woman behind the counter happily fetched. I imagined that it had been opened and inspected a few more times since I'd last seen it, but I didn't mind. If people wanted to look at my dirty underwear to be sure it wasn't going to explode, that was OK with me. "Twins, huh?" said a young man standing nearby. "I'm a twin." "Oh, really?" I said, always interested to meet a twin. "Yeah, we had 3 sets in my family," he said. I wanted to say "Is your last name Duggar?" but resisted. Welcome to Ridgecrest. The babies and I took my suitcase and went back to our car. Baby A ran around a bit among the cars in the parking lot, but since none of them were moving I didn't worry about it. Eventually we all got in the car and went home and had snack.
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