Borrowed Breath

So yesterday, I left work early so Michelle and I could take Nicole and Lauren to the airport. Their flight was scheduled to leave at 5:15 in the evening. So we left our house at 2:00. With no traffic, we are a little over an hour from the Philly airport. So we wanted to allow enough time for traffic and to get through security. Parking was a nightmare. They are doing all kinds of construction, and though the girls were flying Southwest out of terminal E, we had to park in Short Term at terminal B. I definitely walked too fast for the girls. I have longer legs, and I didn’t want the delay in finding a parking spot to be responsible for them missing their flight.

As you will see, I needn’t have worried.

The line for security was long, but we moved right through. Michelle and I were both able to accompany the girls to the gate as non-passengers. This was a pleasant surprise because when we picked them up two weeks ago, they said only one of us could go into the airport. So Michelle went, and I waited by the Baggage Claim.

As I said, we got through security quickly. We got to the gate a little after 4:00, only to discover their departure was delayed to 5:55. No worries, that just gave us more time to eat something. So we found four seats and hung out for a while, talking, laughing, reading. I intermittently listened to Rob Bell and Don Golden’s “New Exodus” series on my iPod. (Thanks Jer!)

You may have heard that Philadelphia got severe thunderstorms last night. So the 5:55 departure got pushed back to 7:30. We hung out some more. Talked more, read more, listened to “New Exodus” more.

7:30 came, still no boarding.

Soon after, they started lining everyone up.

Half the plane was boarded. We said our goodbyes, hugged each other multiple times, and the girls got in line. I heard a guy say, “Don’t look out there!” which of course makes everyone look. Rain was blowing sideways outside. It got stronger and stronger. What looked to be huge drops pelted the ground. We found out a few minutes later that it was actually hail. Of course, the guy who made everyone look, by telling us not to, snidely said, “I told you not to look.” By now, lightening was splitting the sky and thunder was rumbling near by.

We assured the girls (and ourselves) that they would be fine. So they boarded the rest of the passengers. We decided to hang out until the plane actually rolled away from the ramp before we headed home.

They made an announcement that because of the hail, they had to inspect the plane before it could take off. They made another announcement that no planes were leaving or landing due to the lightening.

Finally, at around 9:15, the plane pulled away from the ramp and headed toward the runway. So we made our way back to the car, paid $17 (ouch) for our long short-term parking, and got back onto I95. Suddenly Nicole called. There was a long delay on takeoffs, so it would be another 45 minutes until they took off. Michelle said, “Call us if anything comes up.”

At 10:30, the 45 minutes were up. So Michelle called Nicole. Now they were telling them it would be another hour until they could take off. Hopefully they were able to sleep on the plane.

We got home a little before 11:00. They would not be arriving in Phoenix until the wee hours of the morning.