Let’s Wrap This Up

All good things must end and so must this adventure. And flying home should be the easy part, right? But we were wary. After all, the only rough parts of this trip happened in airports. Dennis picked us up right on time, telling us we were his malakas, and the first issue was whether to drop us off at the Delta boarding or the KLM boarding area. We had booked all our flights through Delta, but our first flight was on KLM. What to do? We guessed wrong and had Dennis drop us at Delta. KLM was on the other side of the giant airport, so we had to trek our three suitcases and 2 backpacks over there, but no biggie. We were in plenty of time. Our first flight was to Amsterdam. Business class on KLM is no one in the middle seats for the three hour flight which was fine. We had a great breakfast at the hotel, but KLM served another one, and who are we to waste good food? The plane taxied down the runway and then stopped. Lots of traffic leaving Athens. It was an hour before we got in the air.

Now this was an unpleasant Déjà vu. We had missed our flight to Barcelona on the front end of this trip due to a one hour delay and we were concerned. The flight attendant, who was the sweetest woman with a fabulous smile, reassured us, but it became pretty unlikely that we would make our flight to JFK. And then we realized that everyone around us had the same flight and the same worry. After talking to the captain, our flight attendant told us that our plane had 22 people on it for that JFK flight, and that they would hold the flight for us. Whew. But she did admonish us that it was a big airport and that we would need to hurry to get to where the JFK flight was waiting.

As we got off the plane, we had to go through a passport identification gate, which malfunctioned about 1 time out of three. Once we had cleared that, with our 22 other passengers, we were met by a KLM representative holding a clipboard who asked us if we were all on the JFK flight. Yes, we said. “Well, run!” She exclaimed, pointing the way. So we began to run. Bob and I were pretty near the front of our race, with two very fit gentlemen ahead of us. Every hundred yards or so, another clipboard wielding representative greeted us with the question, “Are you on the JFK flight?” “Run!!” And we ran. There were three relays of airport people screaming Run! And it never occurred to me to say “Get us a cart you fools!”

By the time we made it to the plane, Bob, who is usually a reddish color, was nearly purple. But we got to our seats and I thought we were in the clear. We could rest now. Lay those seats down and take a nap. Bob headed to the rest room. The next thing I knew, there was a worried flight attendant asking me if I was with the guy in the seat behind me. I nodded and asked if Bob was ok. He led me back to one of flight attendant jump seats where Bob was sitting looking purple and sweaty, and breathing a bit heavily. Oh oh. We were informed that the plane couldn’t take off unless Bob was ok. They would be happy to help us off the plane, get him looked at and get us on a plane tomorrow. Luckily I travel with a 6 lead EKG, an O2 sensor and a BP cuff, which I had grabbed. And a young physician had identified himself and was also on the case. Bob’s BP was a bit up (no kidding after that run) and his O2 was in the low 90’s. We went over Bob’s meds and a brief history, and his O2 climbed while his BP settled. Luckily our new friend the doctor agreed that this was no emergency and we could travel, so the captain gave the all clear and we took our seats. That was a close one! We had the flight attendant send champagne to the doc.

Just before landing in JFK, our flight attendant gave us two beautiful ceramic painted houses in the style of the Netherlands. They took very good care of us on that flight. I suspect they worried that there might have been a better way to help us get on the flight in place of running us through the airport, but Bob was fine, and no harm done.

The rest of the trip was blessedly calm. Bob fell asleep, I read. The doc checked on us, and we made it safely to JFK. Bob was invited to the cockpit so he could personally thank the pilot for allowing us to remain on the plane, and everyone was very gracious and kind. One more flight to go with no further excitement. Truman picked us up at the airport in Norfolk and our adventures were at an end.

As always, we feel very fortunate to be able to travel. Our adventures become a part of us and we are so grateful for the experiences and the people we meet along the way. The more we travel, the more we firmly believe people have much more in common everywhere than differences. We all want to love our families and have the best for them. We want to be proud of our homes, our communities and our cultures, and we want to share our ways of living with others and learn theirs from them. It’s a great big world, and as soon as we recover, we will think through what’s next. Thanks for reading.