THE *NEW* HOUSE

Friday, September 02, 2011

I Hate American Airlines.

Rome-Chicago, was ok. 10 hours, Sean behaved.

But when we've tried to get on Chicago-Omaha flight, Sean was probably too tired and he had the first fit (of many).

The good thing was that EVERYBODY at O'Hare Airport let us jump each possible line...a kid screaming, yelling and kicking is not something you wanna have around especially when meticulous controls are inn act at INS custom lines, Security checks, etc.

So we were able to jump and go fairly quick. Bad thing was that he was UNBEARABLE.

The stress he add-up and that transmits to us is too much, I understand now that probably he is not entirely ready for a long flight.

In addition to this first bad episode, once we were able to "negotiate" with him some time before sitting on what we thought at the time as our last flight, after the plane took off..half way through his route...we had to come back because of this on the way to Omaha:

http://www.ketv.com/news/28909690/detail.html#ixzz1VSyPble4

So...flight was cancelled and we had to stay one night in the outrageously expensive Hilton at O’Hare airport.

They even charge 17 bucks for internet connection!

American airlines told us that our options were: either wait for the very same flight but 24 hours later, or trying the "Stand By" painful card.

Anyway...the next day, early in the morning, we'd decided to try the "stand by" card.

6:30am we went back to the airport and luckily Dee and Sean were able to take the 8:20 flight to ...but not me :(.

Full of hope, but lacking of luck..I've been transferred stand by afterstand by until the infamous 24hours later flight.

While I'd spent 13 hours at O’Hare...

So..what do you do if you have to WAIT that long in a close space?

I've started walking around, eating like a pig junk food, reaching also the other terminals.

Well...apparently TSA (http://www.tsa.gov/) doesn't like that behaviour...walk is BAD...walk is DANGEROUS..so I've been stopped TWICE and body-searched for ...I don't exactly know...probably terrorists are spotted because they WALK?!

On the way back....ha!

Omaha-Chicago went ok. Smooth as water. But... while waiting to be boarded on Chicago-Rome, we've noticed that one of the engines was serviced. They've boarded everybody anyway, and while waiting for

departure we've been informed that some mechanical problems (leaking)

was occurring and 20 minutes were necessary to fix the issue...then 1 hour...then 2 hours...then.."Sorry guys, everybody out we are going to ask for a different plane IF there are any"

another 2 hours and the plane arrived, and happy as a bunch of clams we

took off.

after 6 hours, some poor guy decided that his hart had enough.

Hart attack and a doctor on the plane called the flight off.

We had to land in Dublin (Ireland), the guy had to be hospitalized immediately.

..Well...apparently there is a Federal Aviation's rule that after so many hours on duty, an airplane crew had to STOP FLYING no matter what.

So the captain called it a day and ...."see you tomorrow at 8 am".

NO WAY!

2 and half hours later we were able to reroute our tickets and our hopes to Lufthansa Dublin-Frankfurt-Rome.

Departure was ok...Dublin Airport is nothing special.

Do you have an idea how big is Frankfurt Airport?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Airport

Here a map:

http://www.naco.nl/assets/images/Projects/EU/DE_FRA_Frankfurt_T3_Studies_Overview-credits-cropped.jpg

Well...we had 1 hour for:

Step down the plane (5 minutes)
take the shuttle to the docking station at gate B15 (5 minute)
Rise outside Terminal B (15 minutes walking fast)
PASS CUSTOM (5 minutes)
RE ENTER TERMINAL A TROUGH SECURITY CHECKING AGAIN (10 minutes)
step up and reaching ON TIME gate A40....

Frankfurt Airport's terminals are...long...VERY long. And we had 20 minutes to walk 1/4 back terminal B...elevators etc..and ALL THE WAY TILL ALMOST THE END OF TERMINAL A.

Oh..of course...WE DIDN'T HAVE THE TICKETS in ours hands! They told us in Dublin that "you have to ask for your boarding passes in Frankfurt, we cannot hand them to you now"....

So I blasted away from Dee and Sean trying to run as fast as I could with 1 backpack on my shoulders and a red trolley. I barely made it to the gate, got the tickets but Sean once again wasn't really "cooperative". we had to drag him on the plane and we barely made it (we were the last ones stepping on the plane with Sean yelling like this:

http://tinyurl.com/3hc2utm

but LOUDER...

I had to carry him on the plane like this:

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ACMA_Moschophoros.jpg

because he was kicking and punching so hard I couldn't hold him differently!

We eventually made it to Rome (Thank you Barbara for picking us up at the airport)....after ONLY 30 hours from our departure....

Some numbers:

19 - times we had to show our passports

6 - times we had to go trough security (shoes off etc..)

9 - planes we had to take

14 - boarding passes I'd collected (counting Stand Bys)

1600 - miles we drove (Around Grand Island and round trip to South Dakota)

Things we saw:

Nothing for hours...: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_Sand_Hills

The infamous WALL DRUG store: http://walldrug.com/default.aspx

Bear County: http://www.bearcountryusa.com/

Mount Rushmore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore

Deadwood,SD : http://www.cityofdeadwood.com/

Custer Park: http://gfp.sd.gov/state-parks/directory/custer/activities/drives.aspx

CARHENGE...Stonehenge made with...cars: http://www.carhenge.com/

Pics will follow soon...

Monday, July 25, 2011

Lemon tree, Rules, Bat-Box

Some Rules. Sean lately decided not to follow what the teachers told him to do. And even at home...things got out of control (so to speak). So we had to write down some basic rules togheter:

1) Do not talk about fight club....

2) ....and so on.... :-)