Mexico Trip - the return...

We began our journey at 3:30 in the morning – actually, I woke everybody at 3:00 (all but the guys who stayed up all night) – and we left on the bus at 3:45. We had an uneventful trip to Mexico City, followed by a smooth flight into Houston – arriving there around 11:00. Our flight was supposed to leave Houston at 3:55, so we made our way through customs, security, and on to our gate – which had been changed to C-45. We found out our flight had a slight delay, and was now scheduled for 4:10. No big deal, we should still arrive in PA by 9:30. However, this was not meant to be. Over the next 8 hours, we visited C-37, C-39, C-29, C-39 again, as our flight time and gates were being changed. Imagine moving 30 people 5 different times to gates that could not hold us. Some gates we were mixed in with the crowd. Some gates we sat (some laid) on the floor. But the team did a great job flexing with the changes. We even got in a couple games of RAGE – one game included 12 people and 2 decks. It was a blast – the card game that is! Anyway, by 7:00, we were on our way to Philadelphia.

We arrived without much problem in Philly, about 3 hours later than expected. We landed and made our way through the airport. Some had to go to the restroom, so we stopped a moment because we knew it would take a few minutes to get our luggage anyway. Little did we know of the issue that was awaiting us.

As we headed to baggage claim, some of the people got blocked in behind these plexiglass moving walls that kept the friends and family at bay. It was funny as the security kind of locked down and kept half of our group on the wrong side of the glass. Eventually they were released, but they were a little concerned.

Finally we arrived at baggage claim, and waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. One woman on the other side of the conveyor decided she was going to make a stink, and so she pranced into the office demanding a reason. She came back out looking rather foolish, because everyone else was waiting patiently. Finally the man inside came out and sheepishly told us about what was going on. Since everyone else could not hear him I had to help out... “They say that a big black dog got loose in the cargo bay. They are finding the owners, and when they can get the dog under control, they will release our bags.” Yeah, that's right, we waited around for almost 45 minutes to get our bags. It was the perfect ending to a rather smooth trip. As a matter of fact, Matt had mentioned to me just before our flight out of Mexico that things went incredibly smoothly all week. I told him he had jinxed us... little did I know.

Anyway, we are home, the team did a fantastic job, and I was blessed to be part of it. I look forward to traveling with them again, and if nothing less, I hope to see them at Winter Weekend 2011. We will see what God does...