A Bumpy Ride

We just returned from a fantastic trip to Panama City Beach, Florida and Atlanta. I’ll share more about so many of the highlights in a couple other posts but first I’ll share about our ride home. It was a bumpy ride in every way. Seriously one of the worst flights of my life. Yes, I’m dramatic, and yes that’s how I feel about it. Also I realize this is a first world pain. I have the ability to get on a plane and fly from one place to the other in a few (relatively) short hours and yet I complain. I’m an ungrateful child I know.

But here’s how it went down. I have been attacked by the terrible pollen in Atlanta. The pollen count there was in the 9000’s and a really high count is usually considered to be in the 1000’s. So, I’m feeling the effects of that and then we get to the airport and I’m feeling really achy like before the flu. Yah, that’s fun. We eat a little food and board our plane which is at 7 pm, bedtime for our kids. Isaac screams and fusses for an hour and a half and we try to control the man-child that he is. We were “that” parent that gets all the nice looks. The kids finally get to sleep and an hour later Jenna wakes up having had an accident in her seat. Oh dear. After changing and cleaning up, all while sitting in our seats, Isaac is awake again. This is when we bust out the glow sticks because they are a fun new thing I brought on the plane and they are even better when it’s dark. (My helpful tip to flying with kids is new toys, activities and snacks.)

The ride itself had been bumpy off and on the whole time and at one point there was lighting out the window (which was a bit nerve wracking) that I kept trying to get a picture of, without success of course, but I did like how the sky looked anyway.

Now here’s one of the worst parts of the ride. The couple in front of us smelled soooooo bad (you know it had to be bad because I was terribly congested and could still smell them). They had to have been traveling for a long period of time and not showered in days. As if that weren’t bad enough he kept raising his arms and stretching just so we could all have a fresh new wave of stench hit us every 30 minutes. To make matters worse they kept making out and laying on each other. I wouldn’t want to touch anyone if they were that dirty. I just have a thing for cleanliness.

To end the 5 1/2 hours of torture I guess it’s only fitting if I cried too, and so I did. Upon decent I felt as though my head may explode, my ear being pierced with pain and I couldn’t help but cry as exhaustion had set in. The only one who didn’t cry was Matt, (thank you for keeping it together honey).

So today, I’ve been slowly regaining hearing in my right ear and trying to figure out if I indeed had an extreme attack of allergies or a nice new cold. Either way it’s just plain lame.

All that to say, even after a terrible flight home it was worth the ride. I would do it again because we had such a great time away. One thing I’ve learned is that most good things don’t come without bumps along the way.