One More Airplane Adventure

It took a lot of planning, but I was able to travel back East to visit my kids and see the grandkids, including our beautiful little three month old baby girl. What is it, that grandmas REALLY want to hold the new babies? The sooner the better, and time was a-wasting. I joked that I needed to go see her before she started college.

Doug and I usually travel together, but this wasn't the right time for that. He's had more trouble walking lately, and is working diligently on not falling. Motivated by the fact that he has a running bet with a couple of friends, that if one of them falls and has to be taken by ambulance to the ER, they owe the other one $100. That's not much nowadays, but it seems to be working.

We're staying in Capitola, CA for the summer, an idyllic place to be, when we see all of the heat or fires or rain or floods that have been happening everywhere else. It's only one and a half hours from the San Francisco Bay Area, where most of Doug's family lives, so we asked if he could stay at one of his daughter's homes, where she already has a room that's comfortable for him. All the other kids, and grandkids volunteered to visit, bring snacks, take him for the occasional meal out, and to Mass on Sunday. We went to the teller at the bank and asked for $40 in two dollar bills for him to bribe any grandchildren that ran little errands for him.

My trip was only planned for 6 days, but we stocked up the little fridge in his kitchenette with snacks, and he tried to encourage me by showing how independent he was planning to be.. "But please don't take chances!" I warned him of the bad track record he's had of falling at this house, even when I was there.

Anyway, we scheduled my flight, non-stop on Delta, paid for with miles, but I decided to treat myself, with my long legs, to the Comfort Plus section. It was only $161 extra, since the flight was covered by miles. I wanted to be as relaxed as possible on the way there. The only non-stop that landed at a decent hour left SFO at 11:50 pm, but I figured that maybe I'd actually be able to sleep the five and a half hours. My daughter volunteered to pick me up at JFK when I landed at 8 am.

Nervous about being late, I had Matt, Doug's oldest son, take me to the airport at 8 pm. I insisted upon driving our Prius there, since I can't stand to be the passenger. I figured, no stress on this trip if I can help it!

All checked in, I sat at a little restaurant counter and ordered some nachos for myself that could've fed a family of four, and a Negroni. I grazed on that for about an hour and a half and then went to sit at the gate. All I had with me was my backpack on my back and my wristpocket with my ID, cards and some cash. My one suitcase was checked, since I didn't want to have to lift the heavy thing up to the overhead compartment, so I felt like an experienced world traveler.

I walked around near the gate, to get a little exercise, and then sat near a plug to charge my phone. All of a sudden, I heard, "Will passenger Patricia Harbo please come to the desk?" Really? Oh My God, I'm thinking as I unplugged my phone and walked forward: Didn't I put my newest drivers license in my wrist pocket? Did I leave the wrong one in Palm Springs?? What could this be?

"I'm Patricia Harbo", I say to the two people standing near the microphone.

"Oh yes, Ms Harbo. We have a gentleman requesting to trade seats with you so he can sit close to his family on this flight."

"Well", I explain. "I paid extra for this ticket to be in Comfort Plus."

"Oh yes, well, this is still in Comfort Plus." he says. "AND, it has more legroom!", she pipes in.

"It is, however, in an exit row", he said.

"Well, you know I AM 76, right?" They both shrugged. I'm thinking that they must think I look so cool and younger than 76 in my comfortable baggy BoHo pants, soft sweater and backpack.....

"And, it's a window seat!", he adds, making his eyebrows go up and down invitingly.

"Hmm, I suppose so." , I say. "It'll be nice for him to be near his family."

"Great! He'll be so appreciative! Thank you!" They say together.

Everyone starts to be boarded, and I'm pointed to my Seat F, a window seat, but it doesn't have a video screen in front of it. Then the steward says, "I'll put your backpack over here in this cupboard. You won't be able to place it on the floor"

Alarmed that I wouldn't have all of my things close by, I said "What? Oh, I'd better get some things out first!" "Sure," he said.

While I fish out a stick of gum, a notebook and pen, a book that my sister gave me that's supposed to get me off my duff to write, my phone charger, and some pain pills I should take in a couple of hours, I overheard the steward talking to a mechanic that was finishing up a quick job on the plane. "Maybe if you tried some WD-40 on it. Oh. Don't you have any? I always have it at home. Oh well, I guess it will be alright."

( Not a sentence you want to hear about a problem on a plane that's about to take off.)

I waved at him and he took my backpack. I started to wonder if he would remember that it was mine, since I didn't put a nametag on it.

This was a kind of different exit row. There were two seats ahead of me, and I was behind, able to stick my legs out to the right of one of them. I decided I'd better read the instructions for the exit row passengers. I couldn't figure out which exit door I was on, but it looked like the guys in front of me would be in charge of getting the door open if needed. A nice young woman, Maria, came to sit in the aisle seat, and we both hoped that no one would fill the middle one so we could have more room. I flagged the attendant down again to ask about my video screen, and he pointed down between the seats for me to just pull it up from there. We were instructed then to prepare for takeoff, so I didn't try.

About 30 seconds before we started to taxi forward, the attendant came around to make sure we had all read the BACK of the emergency landing card to see all that was expected of us. Everyone nodded, so I did too. Then I reached for the card again, and read the fine print. We have to be able to lift 60 lbs over the seat behind us! That one really got me! There were other parts, about how you couldn't do this if you had requested a seatbelt lengthener, or if you were blind, or in charge of small children. I qualified right there, but my heart started beating fast as the engines roared and we started to lift off of the runway.

Maria and I looked at each other. I crossed myself. I was happy to see that she smiled and crossed herself too.

After saying a little prayer, I tried to look out my window to see if I could recognize any lights of the Bay Area. Not much to see, so I thought I'd read a little of the book I brought, " Big Magic", by Elizabeth Gilbert. Maybe it would put me to sleep. When I looked away from the window, I saw that all the cabin lights were off, I guess to encourage drowsiness. I thought I'd give it a try, but everytime I closed my eyes there was a little turbulence, and it was announced that we had better have our seatbelts on. That made me look at the card again, and made me worry. Wait a minute! I'm supposed to be having a nice relaxing flight! One that I paid Extra for! Here I am, Working for the airline!

I can't sleep, so I give in and decide to watch a movie. The video screen doesn't easily pop up, and our attendant isn't in sight, so I opt to use the one in front of the middle seat. My phone was already charging over there, so I stuck my headphones in the hole and settled in to watch "The Devil Loves Prada Two", which Doug probably wouldn't have wanted to watch anyway. I must have dozed for a few minutes, since my head fell forward waking me up. After all, it was really about 1 am, and the movie wasn't holding my attention.

We hit a bit more turbulence, so that started me worrying again. I wondered if the men in front of me were preparing themselves to open the locked door and letting down the slide. When I peeked at them, they were sound asleep. Everyone seemed to be but me. I kept thinking I should be trying to rest, so I could give my grandkids my full attention.

After trying unsuccessfully to connect to wi-fi on my phone, so I could listen to my Calm app, I finally flagged down our attendant and he showed me how to raise up my own screen in front of me. I didn't want to get started on another movie, and found something that played classical music into my headphones, hoping it would make me drowsy. The beach wrap that my daughter gave me worked as a blankie and I tried my best to relax. I wish I had a neck pillow. There's probably a blow up one in the bottom of my backpack, but I didn't want to ask for it and not have it be there. So each time I started to get sleepy, my head bobbed forward. As we got closer to the East coast, I opened the window to see some mesmerizing clouds, or could they be snow? .... and then glimpses of patches of land below.

The soft music and the view sent me off to dreamland for a few minutes at a time, and then there were bumps again, and admonishments to stay in our seats and keep our seatbelts fastened.

Finally, they announced that we were nearing our destination. Hallelujah! Only then, they paused my glee by adding that those in exit rows, please remove any blankets and put away screens to prepare for landing, as this will be a bumpy ride. Oh my gosh! They want us to be ready to lift those 60 pound objects over the seats without being encumbered by our blankies! I looked over at my seatmate, Maria, and we both crossed ourselves again.

Coming in to JFK, I thought I'd be able to see the New York skyline, but we were too far away, I guess. We landed, easily, thank God. Just a few bumps. When it was my turn to get up to leave, I tapped the gentleman in front of me. "Well, it looks as though we're off the hook for guiding people down the slide."

"I know!" he said, "I was wondering if I was even strong enough to pull down that lever!"

So I wasn't the only one.