Airplane Shenanigans with a First Time Flyer

Plans… We planned on getting into town early. With time to hit the grocery store, relax a little, and get some good sleep in before my Son’s Extensive Scoliosis treatment at the Scoliosis Care Center. We were scheduled to depart from the Walla Walla Airport at 6am. Wake-up time, 4am. I better have everything loaded in the car and ready to go. There are 2 pretty big items we have to take with us. His Spinal Flexibility trainer and Spinal Weighting devise. I sure am glad medical devices fly for free. Each of these weighed close around 90lbs

Plans… I get a notification on my phone, our early morning flight had been canceled. This did bring a little sense relief, being that we didn’t have to get up so early. So I nstead of arriving in San Jose Airport at 9am, we wouldn’t be landing until 8pm. Okay no big deal, just have to call the rental car place and update my pick time.

Locally we have been experiencing a thick fog that just won’t seem to lift and leave us alone. This was the reasoning for the canceled morning flight. By 3pm the fog had lifted a little but it there was still a thick layer shielding us from the sun.

Attention Everyone! We are experiencing thick fog in Seattle and your flight will be delayed approximately 40 minutes

Gee, that’s nice. We made sure to get there extra early just in case I ran into any issues getting my Son’s medical equipment checked in. Now we wait even longer. This is my Son’s first time flying on an airplane and so far the experience isn’t going to well.

BRUH!! We have to wait even longer!

After sitting in the terminal for about 2 hours it was time to board the plane. It’s just a little guy, it matches the airport.

As we lifted off into the fog you couldn’t see a damn thing out the windows. It was thick!! I told my Son,

“Soon we will be above the fog and you will see the sun”
“Really?… That’s weird”

Over the top of the Cascade Mountains we flew. We could see Glacier Peak out the right side of the airplane and Mount Rainer through the left side windows. I couldn’t get a good shot of them but here is the Cascade Mountain Range.

_{Glacier Peak is off in the distance.}
As the sun began to set, we began our descent into Seattle.

Disappearing into the fog

Our connecting flight to San Jose is set to leave 55 minutes after our initial arrival time. With this 40 minute delay things are gonna be tight!!

A handful of us passengers were let off first, in hopes of making it to our connecting flights. We ran through the terminal and showed up at the gate with 15 minutes left before takeoff.

“Sorry, we are all closed up and I will get you on the next flight”

Well… POOP! As I sat there for 5 minutes or so, a women comes through the door asking the women at the counter if it’s ok to close things up.

“Hey, we are ready to board, we’ve seen sitting here waiting”

The lady at the counter said they had already transferred us to the next available flight. At this point I was a bit frustrated. We wouldn’t be leaving Seattle until 8:45pm. Then I got to thinking…

“If we were able to get on the plane, would we be waiting in San Jose for our luggage and my Son’s equipment? There is no way they could get all that stuff on the planes in time.”

Now I need to call the rental car agency again and reschedule my pick up time…again. WOW good news they close at 10pm and our flight doesn’t land until 10:45pm. Maybe I can get someone to stay and wait for us? After a dozen calls to the desk, a couple messages and even talking to the call center and their supervisor…

“We close at 10pm, no questions asked”
“Oh… Okay…”

Luckily there was another car rental place that stayed open until midnight. The thought of hopping in a taxi and getting to the room, then coming back at 6am to get my rental car that is big enough to load up my Son’s equipment. Then be back in time for our appointment sounded exhausting and stressful. I’m sure glad they had a Toyota Tacoma available in order to fit Al of our stuff. Granted the back seat was full along with the whole bed and I had to haul all everything into the hotel room but it worked. I was hoping for a big SUV so my Son’s equipment could just be locked up in the car.

We eventually made it to the hotel just before 1am, after a store stop to get some groceries for the next day. Our appointment for his MRI is at 7:45am this morning, so 6am is gonna come fast. I think I finally went to bed just before 3am and my Son went down at 2am. It sure would have been nice to be able to rest before a long week of extensive treatment. 9am to 4:30pm every day with a few Doctor exams mixed in. My Son does each of his 4 therapies 3 times each day instead of one of each at home due to school. He gets his butt kicked during these extensive treatments and by Thursday he is pretty burnt out.

_{Nerve Stretching - Getting over 90 degrees}

My Son’s first experience flying wasn’t the greatest but we managed to make things work. Hopefully the flight back is less eventful. It was funny, the first thing he said when we got on the airplane was,

”These seats are tiny!!
Followed by,
“Do these recline?”

What a trooper, he kept his brace on the whole time until we got to the hotel. This kid has grown 3 inches in 9 months and reduced his spinal curves from 22 degrees to 9.5 degrees and 20 degrees to 4.2 degrees!!

I am Super Proud of this Kid Sitting Next to Me on the Airplane**

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