In a little over a week, I will reattempt The Trip That Wasn’t. If you’re new to these parts (or just don’t know what I’m talking about), you can read about it here. Or I can give you the nutshell version.
Back in March, Annelise and I were going to travel with my sister Allison to visit our sister Jen in Washington state. Mere hours before our scheduled departure, two of my kids got a stomach bug and I had to cancel out. Allison made the trip alone and I thanked God that my husband (who surprised me with the plane ticket for Christmas) had the foresight to purchase travel insurance. Once things settled down and everyone was healthy again, I re-booked my flights for the end of June, with one major difference: This time it’ll be Annelise and I… all alone. I won’t have the comforting backup of my sister as I travel from one coast to the other with a 13 month old.
Now I know some of you moms are reading this, rolling your eyes, and remembering the time you flew solo, cross-country with your three children, all under the age of 3. I have two things to say to you. 1) You’re a little bit of crazy and amazing all rolled into one. And 2) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment at the end of this blog post telling me what made your trip wonderful and what made your trip terrible. I need all the pointers I can get!
As you may have figured out, I’m not very adventurous. I love the idea of adventure, but actually carrying it out is a bit stress inducing. And so as the date of our departure draws closer and closer, my list of worries grows longer and longer.
Here they are in no particular order:
- Annelise will scream. All 12 plus hours that we’re traveling. If you haven’t heard her scream before, let me describe it to you. Imagine the pitch that is just out of our range; you know, the ones that only dogs can hear. Drop it down one degree and there you have it. Her scream physically hurts your ears. It breaks glass. It sends grown men running for cover. I’m pretty sure we’d be put on the No Fly List.
- One of our flights will be delayed and/or we will have to switch terminals during a layover, thus causing us to miss a connecting flight. When I made my reservation I thought I was being really smart. We have four flights out there, which sounds a little ridiculous, butt my reasoning was this: four flights means shorter flights, so less time for Annelise to get antsy. Four flights also means three layovers which will give her a chance to crawl around and get some energy out in between. None of the layovers are terribly long, so I figured that would be good as well. Just enough time to jump out, run around, and hop on the next plane. But now I’ve been reminded by several people that sometimes you have to switch terminals between flights. One of my layovers is only half an hour. What if we’re delayed and then have to run across a terminal, hop on a bus, and run through another terminal to get to our gate? There’s NO WAY we would make it in time. Plus, do you have to go through security again when you change terminals? That always takes forever, especially with a baby in tow!
- Annelise’s ears will hurt. I know my ears always bother me when I fly, so I hope that isn’t the case for her.
- We’ll sit next to a crotchety old man. Or woman. Or young man. Or young woman. This fear is just that we’ll sit near someone who doesn’t like kids. That would make for a very long flight. (Did you hear a few months back about that guy who slapped a crying baby on a flight?? Be warned, fellow travelers, if you slap my baby, you will regret it!)
- We will have accidents that use up all of the extra clothes I pack in our carry-on. It could be a spilled drink, a poopy blowout, or a nasty case of throw-up, but if we use all of our clothing reserves and have another accident, what are we supposed to do?? Wear dirty, stinky clothes the rest of the trip? I suppose we would have to. On a related note, how do you change a diaper on a plane? Is there a changing station in the bathroom? I’m hoping I won’t need to, but let’s face it, babies don’t poop (or not poop) on command.