28 Hours

As many of you know, Emma and I flew home to be with family after my Grandpa passed away last monday. The trip out there went off without any issues. The trip home on the other hand was less than perfect.



We all left my Mom's house a little before 930 am (EST - time zones matter to this story), wednesday morning. Once in Manchester we stopped to get some lunch at Olive Garden, which turns out that it was a very good decision, as Emma and I would not have any real food (not snacks that I could carry in my bag), until we arrived back in New Mexico.



After checking my bag and Emma's car seat, getting our tickets and saying goodbye to my mom Emma and I headed for security. For whatever reason I was very distracted getting ready to go through security, and had forgotten about my watch and the alphabet magnets I had in my pocket of Emma's, but remembered before I had to go through the screener. Once it was our turn to go through the screener we made it through, and the woman looks at me and says "Mama you need to turn around and go back and take your daughter's shoes off (normally I remember, but had forgotten), so around we go to take Emma's shoes off, and low and behold when we go through security again nothing changes! (All you mothers with children, make sure you take even your youngest child's shoes off, because they aren't kidding when they say they want everyone's shoes off!)



Thinking I had done the hardest part of our day, we headed for our gate, got settled, and let Emma run around some to get rid of energy and use her legs while she still could. It came time to board, and the agent boarding us said he was going to give us all our boarding passes back in case we needed them in Phili, because apparently they are notorious for huge messes when there is rain in the area. Please note: Approximate time of take off: 2:20 pm (EST), right on schedule.



On the plane we go, and had a very peaceful flight to Phili. Emma slept the whole way and through most of the boarding of the passangers in Phili. Well, while they were boarding the plane, Phili decided to close the run ways to all out going traffic, because there was lightening within five (there is lightening within 5 minutes of the airport- for anyone who's not up on their flying talk). The pilot pushed back from the gate, because as long as the push back from the gate on time its considered an on time departure. Please note: Approximate time 4:20pm (EST), still right on schedule.



We very, very, very slowly make our way out to the taxi way, and on our way out you can see a significant number of planes around us (at this point Im not that concerned). At some point the very nice pilot gets on the radio and says to us: "There is lightening within 3, the runways are still closed, I will keep you all posted as much as I can. I also want to let you know we WILL NOT sit out here for six hours." Alrighty I think to myself, this is turning into a longer day than I expected, but I didn't have any connections to make as the plane we were on was headed to Houston, San Antonio, and then El Paso. I figured we'd be late getting into El Paso so I called Brian to let him know what the deal was, and that I would keep him posted. Approximate time 5:00pm (EST) - no longer on schedule.



Shortly after calling Brian, the Pilot gets on and explains when there is weather like what was occuring on wednesday in the northeast, a lot of routes get rerouted, and as a result, Phili ends up closing some of, if not all its departure run ways. He say's there are several planes in front of us who will be taking off before us, and it will most likely be another hour at least.



Approximate time 6:00pm (EST), at this point Emma has gotten pretty restless, but she's not alone, and she's still in pretty good spirits, its just getting harder to keep her busy.