The Perils of Travelling Airtran

Well, overall it's not their fault, but the end result was!!
Through a whole serious of crappy events this morning we missed our flight to the bahamas. I've never missed a flight in my life. It was horrible.Kent picked us up this morning (GREAT GUY, there's your plug :) WE got off a little late and arrived at the airport at 8:05.But you should have SEEN the lines at the desk. No problem, we can do the electronic check in...Well, after 10 minutes of it not finding our confirmation we went to stand in the huge line, assuming that we just needed to. After 10 minutes int he line, an attendant tells us that we CAN do the e-check, but have to talk to the service person who is standing there doing nothing. So off we go, thrilled to be skipping the rest of the line. We gave her our confirmation number and that's when the real problems started... First thing she asked for? Passports. You should have seen Trav's face. He knew exactly where they were. At home in the desk. Ummm....yeah. To be honest, I didn't even know we needed them. I assumed it was the smae as going to Puerto Rico, Mexico or Cnanda. BUt TRavis knew...The panic begins. It's now 8:40 and the flight is at 9:38. Luckily Kathryn had our car, but also had the kids. Poor Kathryn threw the kids in the car and headed our way in what was left of rush hour traffic. Thank god for the HOV lane ! She got there at 9:02 and we were checked in by 9:05.
Then we ran. I used my pregnant powers to convince the employee at the security check to let us skip the line. THat was great. Then I got the peopel at the actual check out who are puting their bags through to let us jump in front. The tram was right on time. Doors closed right as we jumped on. As the tram pulled up to the C terminal for us to get off, Trav was the first one out the door. It was 9:10. The gates supposedly close 10 minutes before..I stayed back to walk the bags (we weren't checking any) as Trav bookes it up the 2 storry escalator thats BROKEN. THen of course, we are at gate 3, all the way at the end... I lugged the 1 bag up the damn broken escalator, thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm pregnant, not handicapped, right? Well, half way up I knew it was a mistake. The bigger mistake was letting Trav take my bag with my inhaler... NOT good. By the time I got to the top people were looking at me becasue I was breathign hard. Then the real wheezing set in. I didn't knwo what to do. I needed to stop so I could breath, but I HAD to get to Travis with my inhaler, at the other end of the terminal. I don't know how I did it. By the time I got ot the desk my lips wer numb and I was shaking. I was right at the verge of passing out. And it was 9:12.I was too busy puffing my inhaler and trying not to throwup to understand what was goign on. We made it, right? Wrong. THey changed the friggin departure time to 9:20. Which meant the doors closed 2 minutes before we made it. They knew we checled in at 9, but couldn't do anything about it, they said. I'm so embarassed. I cried. I think the fact that I almost passed out did it. I haven't had an asthma attack like that in over a year. TEh fact that we made the time as it should have been, but they had moved the time up so it was all for nothing. At least it was crying quietly. I couldn't even talk for 10 minutes. The lady in charge came up and asked what we wanted to do. Umm, other than get on the friggin plane that was still sitting there? I just wanted to sit there and be mind numb for a minute. So, we told her to go ahead and reschedule us for tomorrow. Well, trav did. I was still staring into space on my albuterol high. It took her a minute to come back, and in that time I gained control of my brain again. She came back and said that there was really no way we could have made it, since we had checked in at 9. I looked at her and said "We've been here since 8. We didn't know we needed our passports. I didn't consider it international because Airtran doesn't have international flights." You should have seen the look on her face. She was horrified. I think they didn't let us on to make a point since we were 'late'. After we got the tickets squared away, we called AIrtran and they were able to extend our return flight to monday morning. We called the owner of the condo we are renting, and he said it is available for the extra 2 nights, and only charged us for 1!! Not only that, he's just going to take it out of our security depsit, instead of make us come up with more $$. GREAT GUY! We were going to be 3 nights, but now we will be 5, since there aren't any return flights available Saturday or Sunday.We sat ther for an hour before we were ready to move. And, amazingly we were pretty much over it by the time we got up. We went and ate lunch at the Houlihan's in the Airport, and then rode the Marta Train back to downtown,s o that Kathryn only had to pick us up at the North Ave. Station. But she had to wash the car seat because poor Selah had an accident in the middle of traffic. My poor girl was devestated. IT was heartbreaking to see her say she was sorry for having an accident that wasn't her fault :(
. We came home and took a nap with the kids and then took them to the Aquarium for a couple of hours. It was the least busy it's ever been. IT was great. In the long run, we will get 2 extra days in the Bahamas, and we got to spend the day with the kids. No errands, no comittements. It's been nice.So, now I'm going to go grill the steaks I go fir dinner and pretend that we are on the beach. We sure as hell better be tomorrow!!!