Michael's big birthday

I flew down to Arkansas last weekend for my middle son’s 40th birthday. How fast time goes by has always amazed me because it just seems like yesterday I was celebrating MY 40th birthday. But time doesn’t wait for anyone so my focus was on Michael.

Regular readers of this column know that maladies often befall me whenever I fly and I didn’t even have to get on the plane before they started this time around. I was meeting a friend at Sarge’s the day before I left for lunch and got stuck in the sand where Fuller’s restaurant used to be; stuck as in up to the axle. When they were tearing down what remained of the building after the devastating fire, they filled in the basement with sand. I’m told it was packed down as much as possible but over time the sand loosened and ended up claiming my yellow Mustang. People from 3 businesses were on the scene, each with an idea of how to get me out but the big problem was finding a place to secure a tow rope. Ben Howard of Indianola finally found a spot on the driver side near the front and Jim Lemon easily pulled me out once the tow rope was secured with no damage to either vehicle. So what looked bad for awhile only ended up delaying our lunch for a few minutes.

I always get up early the morning my flight is going to leave because that’s when I pack. Last Friday morning I already had everything out to put in my garment bag but I couldn’t find it. I had my apartment cleaned a few weeks ago and thought maybe the woman who cleaned it had put it somewhere but I wasn’t going to call her at two o’clock in the morning. After looking all over the apartment, I did what everybody else does when they need something right away and drove out to Wal-Mart. To my surprise, they didn’t have garment bag one so I ended up buying a bag that looked more like a suitcase than a garment bag. It didn’t really fit my needs but by then I knew I had to have something to put the rest of my stuff in so I bought it.

My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:30 and I was at the airport 45 minutes early as the airlines tell you to do. Screening was quick and fast and the Boutique Airline employees are always kind and cordial to me, especially Terri Gray who is one of my former students. The plane was only a couple of minutes late in leaving, the flight was smooth and I made my connections into Fayetteville with no problems. My youngest son Will and his wife Erica picked me up at the airport and we left right away for Russellville. When we arrived, my former wife Linda had a huge spread of barbecued ribs, Cole slaw, baked beans, bread, soft drinks and wine ready for us so we ate until we couldn’t eat any more and then went to bed.

Michael’s 40th birthday on Sunday went off without a hitch and I was so glad I was there for it. He had a big smile on his face all day long so I’m pretty sure he enjoyed it too! He got lots of money from his mom and dad since he’s starting a meteorology program of study at the University of Oklahoma in January.

Late Sunday afternoon, Will and Erica drove me back to Fayetteville where I spent the night with them and then Will took me to the airport the next morning for my flight back home.

In Minneapolis when I boarded the first -class section, I found myself sitting next to a young man with what appeared to be a guide dog lying at his feet. As it turns out, I’m not sure what kind of dog it was because the young man could, talk, walk and see and literally loved on that dog for the whole trip to Denver. The dog was a big black Lab and once he even put it in his lap and opened the shade on his window so the dog could see out. We didn’t have a conversation with each other so I didn’t find out anything else about him.

I was due for a four hour layover in Denver before Boutique would fly me back to McCook so I ate a leisurely dinner, had a couple of adult beverages, looked through some different shops in the airport mall and finally made my way downstairs to the Boutique boarding area. Much to my surprise, the girl was announcing a flight to McCook was boarding right away so I hurried up to her to ask her when that flight was added because it wasn’t available when I made my reservations. She said she didn’t know so I told her I wanted on the plane. She told me I couldn’t get on the plane because I didn’t have a reservation. I asked her if the plane was full and she told me without ever looking in my eyes once that booking for that flight was complete and they weren’t accepting any more customers. On top of that, she told me that my 7:30 flight would be delayed for an hour because this plane that was still on the tarmac had to fly to McCook, pick up passengers and then fly back to Denver.

I’ve been frustrated to the point of anger in airports before but never quite like this. She was telling me I was going to have to wait for at least three more hours for a flight home when a flight GOING home was still on the tarmac and obviously wasn’t full. As professional as our crew is in McCook, the Denver crew is just as unprofessional and is manned by a bunch of young kids who obviously don’t care about accommodating their customers. Finally, the plane made its round-trip flight and when I saw Doug Skiles de-planing, I talked to him for awhile before he left to make arrangements to fly on to Baltimore I think.

The final humiliation came as I was boarding the flight home, I noticed that the fob that is used for keyless entry into my car was missing which meant that when I DID get home, I wouldn’t have access to my car. So I called a good friend of mine, Jim Hager, and asked him if he could pick me up at the airport which he graciously said he could. We drove home, picked up my spare fob and then went back to the airport to get my car.

I finally got to bed a few minutes before midnight, once again totally worn out and frustrated from a flight that didn’t go right. I know many customers fly home from Denver without issues every day but I’m not one of those. I’ve now had many return flights on Boutique and one hasn’t left Denver on time yet.