For camp this year, we planned for Paige to fly on a Delta flight to Ashville, going through Atlanta. Andrea was away in Kansas City, so it was just Shawn and Paige along with pupper dawg, to get her to the airport on time. Paige was up bright and early, ready and raring to go at 4:15 for her journey to camp. We packed up the car, along with Millie, and set off for the airport. On the way there, I made sure that Paige had the Delta app on her phone, her boarding passes downloaded, and checked in for the flights.
I dropped Paige off at the departures area, and we put her two huge duffel bags on a hand cart, so she could wheel them to the bag check-in area. I parked the car in the hourly parking, turned on "dog mode" for Millie, and then walked to find Paige and give her a hug and kiss goodbye before she went through security. I was surprised to find that Paige was still at the ticketing counter, and her bags were still on the hand cart. I could tell Paige was near tears, and the lady working was not very empathetic and said that Paige would be unable to fly. Her explanation was poor, and at first I thought that it was because Paige was too young to fly alone, but in fact it was because her connecting flight went through Atlanta and it was going to be problematic due to weather issues and delayed flights. The day before, the control tower in Atlanta was struck by lightning and many planes were hit with hail. It was probable that if Paige flew to Atlanta, she would be stuck there indefinitely.
We asked the agent for help and solutions, but she shrugged her shoulders and said that there were no other options to Ashville, and that our best bet was to try again the next day. This was a horrible idea, and Paige was very upset that she would miss the first day of camp. We took her bags to a bench and started working to find better solutions. I found a flight option on American Airlines that would get her to Asheville in the late afternoon, but it wasn't a wonderful solution for a number of reasons. First, it was expensive at over $2000 for the seat available which was first class. Second, the route took Paige through DC and then NY before going to Asheville. We looked for other options, but there was nothing available that day that we could find. We rushed to the American Airlines desk, booked the ticket, and sent Paige through security.
I went back to the Delta desk to cancel Paige's flight and as I was standing there, I got to thinking about the multiple connections and the problems it could create if Paige ended up stranded in DC and NY. I was getting more and more uncomfortable with the plan when I realized I could probably driver her to camp and get her there sooner than the multiple flights would. I went back to the American counter, canceled her flight and had them pull her bags, then I told Paige to come back through security. It would be a long day of driving for me, but it was the safest and surest option to get her to camp.
We set off before the sun had risen, and drove all morning. As we hadn't planned to drive, the car wasn't fully charged, so we had to stop a bit more for charging than we would have if we'd planned for it. We were thankful that we'd brought Millie to the airport with us, because we were able to set off directly from the airport and didn't have to worry about Millie being alone all day, or going back to get her.
Paige drove for an hour during the drive, and I managed to sleep for ten minutes or so. By 1:30pm, we arrived at camp, and I was happy that we made it in time for Paige to join her cabin on their planned hike. I think they held up the departure for Paige, but we were a little rushed trying to dig her swimsuit and towel out of her bag while were dropped everything off. I snapped a quick pic of Paige with Millie, and then got back on the road.
When I was about 15 minutes down the road, Andrea called me to tell me that Paige's phone appeared to still be in the car. Thankfully I wasn't too far along, but going back to drop that off meant that I spent even more time driving on a long day.
I was a little worried about the drive home, especially because I was exhausted already and hadn't slept much the night before. I decided to purchase a one-month subscription for the Tesla Full Self Driving system, and told it to take me home. We hadn't had very good experiences with it previously when we'd tried it out, but I do believe it was a lifesaver for me on my trip home. I kept an eye on its decision making, and had to disengage it a couple of times, but for most of the drive it did a great job changing lanes, taking exits, and driving naturally.
I made it home after 10pm, and it was a long day for me, but I'm thankful we were able to make it work and Paige made it to camp safely.
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