The 4th entry in the travel story contest!
This on is from Jeanne Marie Leach
Enjoy!
David and I flew to South Dakota for my father’s funeral in the middle of a sub-zero snowstorm.
Dad and mom had no money since both had been sick for decades. Dad prearranged to pay for his funeral expenses by leaving all furniture and anything of value to the funeral home. The family went through his apartment to take care of personal items. We each chose an item or two that meant something to us. I took three of Mom’s porcelain teapots.
The only way I could protect my treasures for the trip home was to carry them onto the plane. We got onto the plane early in the morning, and it took off. There was some minor turbulence, but the flight went smoothly until hubby noticed we were banking right, yet this was a supposed to be a straight flight across the prairie to Denver. Then came the announcement that we were landing in Cheyenne, Wyoming. They requested all standby passengers to disembark. David and I had flown standby.
I grabbed the bag of teapots and followed David off the plane. In the terminal they let on a couple passengers, then took off without us! The handful of other stranded passengers rented cars to drive to Denver, but we had no means to do likewise. So we sat around the Wyoming terminal for eight hours until another flight finally took us to Denver.
All flights from Denver to Kansas City, where we lived, were booked. Late at night someone from the airlines finally took pity on us and sent us to a hotel. We had no clothes or personal toiletries, so the hotel experience wasn’t very fun.
We got home the next day, weary, rank, and broke, but with teapots intact. This experience hasn’t changed my mind about flying. I still think it’s the only way to travel.
Leave a Reply