Vaso de Barro

I apologize for the length. I just wanted to write down everything. (:

Tell me, would you like to go on an adventure with me?

I had the craziest day yesterday.  I got to the airport in Saint Louis super early: that’s perfectly alright. Security was interesting. I explained my leg to them and they sent me into the full-body scanner thingy. Y’know, the one that makes you naked? Yeah. That’s okay though. I understand the airport’s concern. And only one person saw me, a lady, so we’re good. Then the lady patted down my prosthetic leg, which is also fine by me. Got through security and quite easily to my gate, nearly at the end of the airport. After about an hour of sitting and waiting the screen above the gate blipped and said the flight was delayed from 6:15 til 6:50. We were scheduled to arrive in Charlotte at 8:15 and my connecting flight boarded at 9:45. That was okay, still. Just meant I only had an hour to find my next plane. When we got to Charlotte I noticed that we kept circling the airport. There was a storm, the pilot said.  This went on for a long time until finally the pilot said we were being diverted to Greenville SC to get fuel because Charlotte’s airport was shut down due to the storm. Then we’d be back in the air and back to Charlotte, which was only a fifteen-minute flight from Greenville. Except by the time we got done fueling there were more storms in Charlotte. My flight into Charlotte finally got in at midnight local time. My plane to Rio had left me. I trudged across the airport to the gate for my Rio flight and got a new boarding pass, a hotel voucher and a single $5 meal voucher.

From here the real adventure begins. I sat down next to a lady when I was waiting for my new boarding pass and she kept looking over at this guy who had sunglasses on, talking with someone official. She explained that he had been her seat mate and his flight had been missed as well, and that he was blind, so she was kinda keeping an eye on him. We both got our boarding passes and made our way over to the guy, who was sitting waiting for his. We figured out he and I were going to the same hotel, and the airline hadn’t really offered him an escort other than a handicapped golf cart thingy to get him to the doors of the airport to get to the shuttle. I realized I didn’t want to be alone traveling to a hotel in the middle of the night (it was nearly 1am at this point). Long story short we decided to be travel buddies. I felt like I could trust him, and if not (no offense, Trevor, if you’re reading this), even though I can’t run fast I could more than likely get away from him. So he waited with me to find my luggage until finally we realized it wasn’t coming, asked the official person and were told that my luggage would be in Rio before I was. Then we made our way to a hotel, which was straight up in the ghetto. As I was helping him find his room (helping is a loose term: he is the most able blind person I’ve ever heard of) we decided we were hungry and we were going to get a pizza. He paid for it, which was very sweet and kind, and we laughed over stories of our adventures and chowed down. It turns out he’s a sponsored mountain climber! The guy is incredible, I’m telling you! People think I’m cool, but I feel like the most boring person ever compared to the stories he was telling! If anyone’s interested in his climbing team or to read his story, go here: http://www.teamfarsight.org/Trevor_Thomas.html . Anyway, at about 2:30am we were done eating. Trevor told me to take the rest of the pizza, since he’d be going home in the morning and I wouldn’t. He then insisted on walking me to my room, which I appreciated a lot! The room was shoddy, but acceptable. I wasn’t sleeping in the airport, so I’m not complaining! I finally got to sleep around 4:30am local time (an hour ahead of y’all Midwesterners) and had to wake up around 10 to see if I had to check out at 11. The kind lady let me stay in my room til 1, then a shuttle brought me to the airport.

Ooooh security. Being the first time I can ever remember flying, I didn’t know what I was doing. I assumed every airport’s security was the same.  I was very wrong. I got in, told them I had a prosthetic leg, and was taken aside to a lady who explained to me she’d be patting me down. I thought, ok, patting down my prosthetic without me going through the body scan, sure. I was wrong. She meant she would be giving me a full-body pat down right in front of God and everybody. And she did. I was so embarrassed! After about 5 humiliating minutes of people suspiciously staring at me as I was patted down like a criminal I was done. I grabbed my stuff, my shoes, and all but ran out of security to a corner where I could put my shoes back on. I was hungry, so I found a food vendor, ordered, and handed them my voucher. They told me they couldn’t take it, as it had expired earlier that morning. Thank you, airline, for giving me a meal voucher for my 24 hour layover that was only good for about 10 hours. Fancy dancy. Anyway. I went to a couple more vendors who couldn’t take it, til I tried a Jamba Juice because the lady looked very kind, and I was right. I figured I might as well get some use if I could out of the voucher, so the lady let me use it for a smoothie. It was a darn good smoothie. So here I am at the airport, and have been since 1pm local time. My flight boards at 9:45 and leaves at 10:30 tonight. I’m excited! It’s crazy around the airport right now, due to all the missed flights from yesterday, but it’s kinda fun! The whole adventure has been, really. I can’t wait to see what the rest of it brings! Thanks again for all the support and prayers! I love you all!