Colleen's 2-Cents: Home at Last

Oh, let's see... Friday we spent the day at Princess Cays, a private island owned by the cruise line. Chip, Kim, David, Matt and I roasted in the very hot sun, and cooled off in the very cold waters of the Bahamas. We parked Aunt Mabel under a shady palm tree with her book.

We returned to the ship and spent many hours packing, and helping Jim, Jewel and Mabel pack. It was time to kiss the cruise goodbye.

The alarm went off at 6:00am Saturday, and the frenzy began. We jammed the remainder of our belongings in our carry on luggage and moved to Gatsby's, the casino, to wait for our disembarkation. We waited for an hour. The wait was long and stressful. We had a plane to catch! When we got off of the ship, we got on the bus and waited for 40 minutes. Um, hello! We had a plane to catch!

We arrived at the airport at 10:00, our flight was at 10:40. I was SURE there was no way that we were going to make it. We had 2 wheelchairs, a walker, 10 pieces of heavy luggage, and... all of us. We were SO lucky to get a pushy, VERY friendly sky-cab-man that took control. We checked the luggage curbside, with huge "LATE CHECK IN" tags on them. This man, RAN through the airport screaming, "Look out! Wheelchair! Look out!" all the way to the security check point. This is where the story fell apart.

Somehow, we got separated. Somehow, I ended-up with Mo & Pop's carry on luggage with all of Mo's medicine... and mouthwash (which is restricted) and nail polish remover (which is restricted)... it took an extra 10 minutes to go through her things and I was holding my breath the whole time. The TSA man said, "Wow, you look healthy to be carrying all this medicine." I was like, "Well, it my Mother-in-law's bag! She's over there!" He said, "Surely, you aren't carrying on someone else's bag??" "Um, nope." She got me again!!

Mabel got through, and ended up on the plane. I have no idea how.

Jim was behind me, in another line, and was stopped because of his knee replacement.

Chip was with Mo, who was stopped because she didn't walk through the detectors on her own. They gave her a once over that was taking forever. Pop & I went to the place because they were paging us, "Will the Almoney party PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get on the friggin' plane???"

Once I was seated, the Flight Attendance told me that they were going to have to shut the doors, that hey had waited far too long already. I pleaded with her. "But... my husband... his mother in a wheelchair... they stopped her..." No can do. The doors were shut. We had decided to stay on the plane, and to meet up with them in Raleigh. I franticly called Chip on his cell and tried to explain what was happening on board.

Some how, some way, they made it to the gate, Southwest opened the plane, and let them on. WHEW! The flight home was quiet, as was the 3 hour drive to the Outer Banks. I am thrilled to be home again.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, are the pics & vids I couldn't upload earlier...

Mo & Mabel at Raleigh Airport, waiting to get on the plane.