The Tale of the Marvelous Journey – Part 1: ABQ to DFW

As I write this, I’m not online. I’m actually sitting in our antiquated cottage, watching “CSI:NY” on BBC 5. But that’s near the end of the story, and this is the beginning.

Tuesday, June 20
We got everything packed up. Ten suitcases, seven carry-ons, 2 strollers, 1 baby-carrying backpack. We weighed the suitcases as we went and there were 2 or 3 that I was worried about being over the 50 lb. limit.

Steve came home from work at 3 p.m. and helped finish up the packing. By the time he came home, I had everyone except him packed. So he packed himself. Then he proceeded to load everything into the minivan the lab rented for us. Yikes! Unbelievably stuffed, packed as only a Nolen can pack.

We went down to Albuquerque, ate at Fuddrucker’s by the airport, then found our hotel. AmeriSuites – even closer to the airport than Fuddrucker’s.

After everyone finally settled down and got a decent night’s sleep, we awoke at normal time, got ready, ate breakfast at the hotel, and left for the airport. I think we must have looked like one of those clown car acts at the circus when we were unloading. In addition to the baggage and stuff I listed above, we also had 3 car seats to add to the pile. While Mom and the big kids accompanied the luggage cart man with 2/3 of our stuff into the terminal, I loaded Juju into my frontpack and waited on the curb with the rest of the luggage for the cart man to come back. Steve had gone to gas up the van and return it.

I think the people in line behind us at the check-in desk were shaking in their boots when they saw the Mt. Everest that was our stuff. Mom checked in first with the heaviest 2 bags. One was 3 pounds over, the other was 3+ under the weight limit, so she took out 3 of Steve’s books from the heavy one and put them into the lighter one. Problem solved.

Then we waited for Steve to come back. We kept letting people from behind us go ahead of us while we waited. I bet we waited 15 minutes for him. But we finally got checked in with only one bag ending up over the limit at 58 lbs. Steve paid the $25 fine and we were done.

Getting to the airport and checked in was the 2nd biggest hurdle for us in my mind. The biggest hurdle that I was anticipating was security. Sure enough it was a huge pain. Strollers had to be collapsed, kids had to be corralled, bags had to run through the system, the baby had to be carried out in front of me, and Steve’s and my shoes had to be removed. We were all wearing athletic shoes, but only Steve and I had to take them off. What a pain! Then they had to check Steve’s backpack by hand since it had a laptop in it. An eternity later, we were all put back together and were heading to our gate.

We sat and snacked on peanut butter crackers and apple juice until our flight was called. We were on 2 of the back 3 rows. Mom & Caleb sat in front of me, Julie, Audrey, & Steve. Juju rode in my lap for part of the trip to Dallas, but slept on Steve for most of the trip. All 3 kids were great. They played with pipe cleaners for quite a while.

It took another eternity to get off the plane. I don’t know what the holdup was, but it turned out that we deplaned faster in the U.K. than at DFW.

So we made it to DFW just fine. The strollers and backpack we had gate-checked in Albuquerque were waiting for us in Dallas when we got off the plane.

We lunched at McDonald’s in the newest terminal at Dallas, but Steve decided to get a last taste of home and went to the BBQ place. On his way there, he passed a guy that he said looked just like Emmet Smith. Turns out it was Emmet Smith. Oh, and the BBQ was good, too.

Tune in again for the next installment of the Marvelous Journey: DFW to LGW and beyond…