Sprint to the Finish

I showed up at San Francisco Airport with 300 lbs of luggage! I was flying Asiana Air and I was sure that there were going to be disapproving stares at best and absolute refusal to help at worst. Turns out my sweet smile (a girl can dream) and my story about the school in Cambodia and a quick flash of toothbrushes and toothpaste was enough and we were on, luggage and all. I had been dreading the check-in for days, not that I am generally a light packer, but I try to have my luggage weigh less than the travelers! Anyway, with this initial hurdle cleanly jumped I thought we were good to go.

Until the plane was 30 minutes late leaving San Fran and there was “abnormally strong headwind”. Suddenly our hour and a half transit time was about 10 minutes! I debriefed the flight staff from my seat in the second to last row. I explained that I had a flight at 630pm and the information on channel one of my personal flight computer said we were arriving at 616pm. The first flight attendant suggested the following:

“As soon as the seatbelt sign comes on, run for the front of the plane, that way you don’t have to wait.”

Yea, okay lady, good in theory, but in practice I have two kids under the age of four, we all have at least one piece of carry on and some of us might have two. Not to mention that this plane is full of Koreans, lovely people, but they do not believe in the seatbelt sign and they are of the ‘shove right back’ ilk.

I called the kids into a family meeting and explained that we had ten minutes to get from this plane to the next plane or we wouldn’t be able to see their daddy tonight. I stressed that we all would have to run, that they needed to listen to mommy and that if we didn’t make the flight we would have to eat Kim-Chee for the next 24 hours.

As we landed and taxied people were, as I predicted, already up in the aisle. I don’t know if my mom taught me well or I have a weird premonition that one day one of my planes is sure to run into the terminal while attempting to be hooked to the arm-thing, but I refuse to take my seatbelt off until instructed to do so. As soon as the light went out I was up, I grabbed my hand luggage and the kids and we started down the isle…about 2 feet, and then we hit the wall of Koreans. As I saw my chances slipping away, the pretty, 100-pound-at-the-most flight attendant pushed past me and grabbed Callie’s hand (I had made Callie the engine while I was running clean up). In Korean she started yelling at people and shoving. I caught a glimpse of Callie’s eyes through the mix of elbows and hang luggage and told her to push and that I was right behind her. I gave Couper a slight knee-to-the-back in an attempt to convince him to plunge after Callie and away we went. We shoved our way from back to front and got off right after the business class passengers…victory number 1!!

When I had asked them on the plane to get us assistance at the gate I had stressed that one of those people-movers would be in order. In this case the people mover was a 100lb gate agent with a walkie talkie.

She grabbed Callie’s hand and we started running. At first Couper ran, then he lay down and refused to go another step, so I loaded him onto his Trunki (www.trunki.com: check them out, they’re awesome). He sat on his, hunkered down, gripping the handle like his life depended on it and started the ride of his life. I pulled Couper with one hand, wheeled my carry on luggage with the other and tried to keep my shoulder bag on my shoulder with my teeth. All was going well with this method until we had to corner. At this point, the Trunki tipped over and Couper flew off, let the screaming commence! I scooped him and his trunki up and kept running.

Callie, who was still running her little heart out, holding the hand of the gate agent turned around, in full run mind you, and yelled, “run Couper, if you want to see daddy you have to run!”. I would have been telling Couper the same thing if I could breath!

We finally made it to transfer security and put our bags through, then it was back to running full-out. We made it to the gate, covered in sweat and breathing like I had run a marathon (Seoul Airport is big so it was at least a half marathon). Korean Air had kindly held the flight for us, so everyone got a good look at us as we struggled down the aisle sweating, with hand luggage at all angles and Couper still screaming.

Five hours later on arrival in Siem Reap, Couper takes off in a dead run out the doors of the terminal and into his daddy’s arms, Callie and I have a bit less gusto, but Couper obviously believes in a sprint to the finish. The 300 pounds of luggage, it didn’t run fast enough…they say it will arrive tomorrow.