Airport Olympians: Running Late with Time Flying By 

1:00am – Bags are packed, complete with Disneyland luggage tags. Nothing could stop us now.

“So, what time should we leave for the airport?” Parker inquired.

“Our flight is at 6:24am. If we take a quick nap and get up at 2:30am we can be there with plenty time.” Elizabeth replied.

“Okay, goodnight.”

[Skip to the “morning”] *Elizabeth wakes from a dream, confused and disoriented, and looks at the clock. Upon seeing what time it is she immediately feels panic consume her entire body… Like, a “I’m taking a shower at the Bates Motel and Norma just walked in” panic.*

Okay, what time do you think it was? Well, it sure as Seabiscuit wasn’t 2:30am… It was 4:22am.

With a 1 hour drive ahead of us, plus airport security, it wasn’t looking good for the home team. But we rallied. (And no, Mom and Dad, we did not speed, we drove under the limit.)

Ya know in movies, when people are running through the airport, jumping over wet floor signs, and weaving in-and-out of travelers, while yelling things like “sorry” and “excuse me” as they dash past? Well, that was us. Literally. I’m not kidding.

No joke, when we made it to our gate the ‘ticket scanner lady’ looked at us and said, “you only have 10 seconds!” As we ran down the pedway I heard her say on the radio, “Okay, close the gate.”

We finally reached the threshold of the plane… Feeling a true sense of exhilarance and achievement. Little did we know, the biggest challenge still awaited us…. Boarding a plane packed full of people at the absolute last minute.

Talk about awkward. The flight attendant had to rearrange overhead luggage to accommodate us, and I could feel the eyes of 50 passengers staring holes in me… as I stood there… with my Star Wars t-shirt on… like an adult-child.

I’ve been on the other side of this situation. I’ve showed up to the airport hours early and sat patiently at my gate. I would, then, in a timely fashion, board my flight, put my sensibly sized carry-on bag in the compartment above me, and wait…. as all the unorganized and inconsiderate people run on the flight at the last minute and caused a mess.

Except this time “those people” were my husband and I.

Did we forget to set an alarm? Did someone hit snooze? We may never know. But we made it from Kentucky to Dallas, then from Dallas to California. So that’s all that really matters.