I suppose everyone reading this already knows that we had a flight outta BWI scheduled for today and that it is currently snowing like a scene out of Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer right now in Baltimore. You probably also already know that we're already here in Vegas, being as neither Mary nor Marcy raised any dummies.
'Twasn't easy, though. I somehow remained in blissful ignorance until Thursday night, when a Facebook Friend mentioned that she was going to go to the store ahead of all the snow crazies. So I checked the weather forecast. And flipped out.
For starters, our trip was not the kind that could just be delayed. M is godmother for her nephew's christening on Sunday. It's not the sort of thing one can reschedule at the drop of a hat. Or the drop of two feet of snow, if you prefer.
Next, even if we could fly out of Baltimore on the flight we signed up for and get to Vegas before Sunday morning, it was still very unlikely that it would take off in any kind of a timely manner. Spending countless hours in an airport with a two-year-old would have been most unappealing. Assuming we could get the airport in the first place.
And so, in the early hours of Friday, M looked into rescheduling to an earlier flight. I highly endorsed that plan, once I woke up at a civilized hour and was informed of the idea. There was a flight available around 5:30. Perfect. Enough time to get ready (reasonably so, anyway) and well before the storm. We just had to make sure M's sister would be around to pick us up!
By the time we had verified that M's sister could indeed pick us up a day earlier than expected, the 5:30 flight was booked up. So were a few flights before and all of the flights after 5:30. There was a 11:15 or so and a 1:40. It was 9:30. There was no way on this or any other earth that we'd be ready for the 11:15. We booked the 1:40. We had 2 hours to do almost everything necessary to get ready and still get out of the house in time to pick PG up from daycare and get to the airport early enough to get through that maze of bureaucracy and security. It was a tense(ish) two hours.
We got out of the house when we wanted to, surprisingly, and we got all the crucial stuff done. Hooray for M and me! And we got to our gate with a whole 10 minutes to spare, though it meant not having lunch, as defined by rational human beings. If you consider Nutri-Grain bars and cheese crackers from Hudson News lunch, then yes, we did have lunch.
The first leg of our journey west went amazingly well (our original plan was for there to be just one non-stop leg - that went out the window when we changed our plans.) PG was the very picture of a Good Girl. She was quiet and fairly well-behaved. And she napped for a couple hours too!
We switched planes in Albuquerque, taking care to make a right turn there, lest we get lost like Bugs Bunny. The hour and a half layover was uneventful, though PG did score a Disney Princess Activity Pack at a book shop.
Oh, to have had an uneventful flight from Albuquerque to Las Vegas. About halfway there, PG threw up all over her blankets. In retrospect, it was probably the movement of the plane, combined with watching a movie on our laptop. So we changed her clothes, put the blankets in a plastic bag, sat her down, and started the movie back up. And then she threw up all over my Ravens sweatshirt. And then again into an air sickness bag. Twice. And then again in the airport as M was just finishing up changing her into fresh clothes by baggage claim, requiring yet another change of clothes.
But we had arrived, and, after a bath, PG was none the worse for wear. And then, of course, the news from back east started trickling in today. Snow measured in feet, not inches. Flights canceled like crazy, including our original flight. Roads so overrun with snow we would never have gotten to the airport anyway. We chose wisely, and it was worth all the stress.
Now I just have to worry about getting into our driveway at 11:00 at night on Christmas Eve!
(Song lyric reference: It's a play on "Let It Snow")
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