Lemonade Chronicles, Chapter 2

Continued from August 30 . . .

I met many wonderful people on my trip home from Las Vegas. My cranky seat mate was in a much better mood once he figured out his connections. He helped me reach the overhead air vent that I couldn’t reach, even while standing. When I suggested to him the cabin would applaud when the plane left the ground, he didn’t say anything, but he did laugh and said, “you called it!” when the other passengers did exactly that.

When we landed in Charlotte at 1:00am, I called my husband to tell him. TV Stevie asked, “And how is Charlotte?” To which I replied, “She has a big web and there’s a pig named Wilbur.” My seat mate completely cracked up.

The airline agents waiting to help us were a bit on the testy side, but they’d been dealing with irate passengers all evening. I was told my flights had been rebooked and if I wanted a hotel, they would reimburse me up to $75. But no list of hotels. No voucher. No food voucher. They did tell us the Starbucks was open. I trudged to the restaurant, grateful I ‘d been forced to check my bag in Las Vegas. I ran into other passengers. Some of them had hotel vouchers. Most of them had smart phones–and data–so they could look for hotels.

There were none with vacancies.

I purchased a sandwich and trudged back to the gate where my flight would depart at 3:45pm that afternoon. And that’s were I began my temporary career as the hostess of Gate B-10 at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.

to be continued.