In March of 2023, we left Palm Springs for the Bay Area to try to organize the refurbishing of our old home in Richmond, California. I have to stipulate California, since most often when I say Richmond, folks say, "I didn't know you were from Virginia!" It seemed like a good idea to fly, rather than drive, since we usually take 2 days to accomplish the 8-1/2 hour trip. While getting ready to leave and trying to be very organized, I charged up all our electronic devices: both of our phones, my new wireless earbuds, my Apple Watch, the computer, and even a charger that my daughter gave us years ago, should we be without power to plug in while camping. I even made sure I had all of their respective power cords, storing them in a designated pocket of my backpack. We tried to find a good deal flying from Palm Springs, but they usually involved changing planes and detours to Denver or Boise, lasting up to eight hours. A flight from Palm Springs to SFO should only take about an hour and a half.
We finally decided to drive the hour and 15 minutes in the pouring rain to the Ontario airport, listening to the ominous news about the "Atmospheric River" that was coming our way. We had never heard of such a thing before, but it seemed like we were already in it. Our Prius needs new windshield wipers and makes irritating, loud fart-like noises when they're on regularly, so I keep on doing the intermittent speed, which almost blocks out your vision before the wipers clear the windshield. Huge trucks, many of them with the blue Amazon Prime swoosh logo on their sides, splashed and sprayed past us, their tires making mysterious noises as they went by.
As we pulled in to the airport parking area, the wind was raging, and the downpour made me turn the noisy wipers on full speed to be able to see at all. There was a nice handicapped parking space available, and we grabbed it, since we have the qualifying plates now. Doug, who is 81 now, can use all the help he can get. We sat for a moment to catch our breath, and realized that the rain had stopped! We got out our one suitcase and 2 backpacks, traveling light to get a low fare on Frontier. Covered with rain jackets, hats and an umbrella (my husband, who has bad memories of being raised in Seattle, always insists on one), we ventured out through the puddles.
As soon as we crossed the street, an airport shuttle pulled up, and a cheery driver said "Welcome aboard!", as she lowered the hydraulic bus and made a nice ramp pop out for us. It had just started to rain again, so I said to her, "What a blessing it is to have you stop for us!" At every stop, on the way back to Terminal 2, she helped everyone with their bags, and cheerily wished them safe flights. While driving, she (Diana) sang softly to some soul music she had playing from a little orange speaker on the dashboard. When it was our turn, she called out to us, "Have a Wonderful Flight!" and genuinely sounded like she meant it.
Our flight was on Frontier Airlines, since we were doing our best to be frugal. The $29 seats sounded attractive, but as you continue your booking, you realize that you must choose a seat for an Extra Fee! It was required that you sit, so the price went up. Frontier is known for no-frills, and we were made to understand that we would have to pay extra if we asked for ANY advice. Of course, when at the airport, I couldn't get my phone to connect to any internet to bring up our boarding passes, so I ventured sheepishly over to the desk, where a very kind young man showed me how I could get on to the Frontier app to bring up our passes, and then, to my amazement, showed me how to take a screenshot of them to have in my photos. (Just FYI, on an iPhone, you press the top volume button and the other side button at the same time, and voilá! It takes a picture, actually a screenshot.) I was happy to add this bit of information to my iPhone knowledge, since I'm the "I.T." person in the family.
He called for someone to bring us a wheelchair for Doug. That didn't work as well. We waited and waited, putting off going to the restroom, so we wouldn't miss them. Someone even came by, got him in a chair, and said, no, he'd have to get out again, because she was supposed to pick up someone flying on Delta. Finally, someone left one of the wheelchairs near us, and Doug, rebel that he is, talked me into taking it and pushing him myself. We made it all the way through security, with him steering our rolling bag with the computer bag on top along side, and carrying my backpack on his lap. After we finished security, one of the pushers was finally there to ask if we needed any help....
We accepted the offer, since I was getting tired of being the pusher. Doug, as the pushee, still offered to hold my backpack and the computer bag, while Luis, a short, man of about 60 years old, figured out how to attach the rolling bag on the back of the wheelchair. I walked along freely waving my arms at my side to exercise them. Maybe this would count as exercise on my Apple watch. When we got to the gate, Luis left Doug sitting in the chair, and bowed as he pocketed the $5 Doug handed him. After he left, an announcement came overhead that Frontier flight 192 would be delayed for over an hour because of the weather. Tired, Doug decided we had time to go get a drink. He spotted a "watering hole" close by, and off we went, once again pushing along by ourselves. The bar was crowded, and I left him with our things near a high counter and went to order two Manhattans from a harried bartender with wild looking red hair. Folks I chatted with mentioned that they had also been delayed because of what was being called an "Atmospheric River". We all guessed that it was better to be on the ground than in the air at this point. Doug and I finished our cocktails and we ventured back to our gate. They were just starting to allow pre-boarding, so that was cool. Luis showed up one more time to push the chair down the ramp. We got all settled in our seats, and had our one bigger bag and computer up in the overhead compartment, and our backpack at my feet. We watched the crowd of relieved passengers venturing down the aisle and trying, sometimes in vain, to shove their oversized bags into the overhead bins. The rain seemed to us to have slowed a bit, and we held hands and said an Our Father as finally the engines revved up. Just as the stewardess was beginning her instructions about seatbelts, the pilot came on, saying, "We're sorry folks, but air traffic control has said that we must offboard all passengers. You'll be notified when it is safe to come back on board. Sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you for choosing Frontier Airlines." Handicapped passengers are first on and last off, so we sat and waited until an attendant could help us lift our bags down. She said that there was a wheelchair waiting outside for us and we were glad to see Luis once again at the helm of Doug's wheelchair. Going Up the ramp was harder for him to navigate, but he didn't complain. He left us once again at the gate, pocketing another fiver. We had heard all about his family by this time. We could see the rain pelting down, once we were back at our gate. I realized that I hadn't charged my phone for a long time, and had used it a lot, but when I looked around for a plug near the seats, they were very few and far between, and all were used. This was partially due to the fact that this was a new wing of the airport, and it was still being furnished with seats. Some of them were old, and didn't have outlets attached to them, or if they did they were broken. Everyone had brought out their computers and phones and were taking the chance to charge up. I remembered something my neice Martha told me. She travels a lot on business, and always carries one of those power strips in her bag. She shares the plugs with others, and she says, "I'm very popular at the airport." I made a mental note to adopt that habit. Doug said, "Heck, it'll be awhile till we get to take off, and I'm hungry. Let's go over to that restaurant down the way. You could probably charge up there." So once again, I pushed the chair along on the carpet, with Doug holding our rolling bag out to the side, until we reached Rock and Brews, the same place we'd had a drink before. We decided to share their Smokehouse Burger, and each had another Manhattan....just because. I also found an outlet under our table to charge my phone and my Apple watch. Once again, we heard the announcement for boarding for Frontier Airlines, and paid our tab. I pushed us back to the gate, and eventually we were greeted by Hameed, who was assigned to glide Doug down the ramp to pre-board the plane. We knew right where our seats were, and our attendant, Alicia was there to welcome us back on board. "Hmm, haven't I seen you two somewhere before?", she kidded. "Let's hope this time it all comes together better!" After everyone was seated, Alicia and her cohorts went into their schpiels about safety and all. More people may have been listening this time, about where the emergency ramps were. We taxied out for a reassuring time, turning slowly every so often, and then the plane stopped, the rain pelting our windows. After an excruciating 20 minutes of silence, there was an announcement ping, followed by an apologetic pilot letting us know that we would be returning to the gate. When we got there, Frontier said that the flight had been canceled altogether because of weather. It turns out that we couldn't get a refund, since it was because of that, and not their fault. Many upset passengers were complaining that they would have to pay for their own hotel bill, since all flights were canceled. That would be us too. We went to our trusty Hotels.com app and found a hotel close by for a reasonable price, and bailed our car out of long term parking for $16. It was tempting to consider driving up to the Bay Area, but in the end, decided to rebook for the next day,..... but this time with Southwest. Next morning, the skies were cloudless, and after a fairly good night's sleep, I drove us back to the airport, singing the old theme from Sesame Street. "Sunny day! Sweepin' the clouds away..." We were professionals by now. We knew how to catch the wonderful shuttle, to the Southwest desk this time. The wheelchair pusher cheerily collected Doug and helped with our luggage, got us through security easily and to our gate. Doug doled out one of the many fives that he had in his pocket to Hakeem this time. The amazing "Atmospheric River" was finished with us by now. We started to have a new attitude about our ordeal the day before. Bouncing around in wind and rain in an airplane with no visablity wouldn't have been our idea of a good time. We think that next time we'll pay more attention to the Weather Channel.
