Saturday, July 17, 2010

We made it to Prague!

When traveling with First Baptist Church, one should always be cautious and anticipate for something to go wrong. As a young GA (Girls in Action) going to Camp Pinnacle, it was destined for a church van to break down on the way to Clayton, GA. If not one van—two. As a youth member, we were never surprised when the van keys would get “misplaced” leaving us stranded until someone came to our rescue. Last year on our way to Bulgaria, our minister Carlton wasn’t even allowed past check-in due to a “soon to expire” passport.

Today, was like any other day travel day with FBC.

The morning started out smoothly. We all arrived at FBC around 11:30 with bags in hand. After prayer and good-byes we raced (thanks to Wayne) to the airport. Traffic was surprisingly steady and we arrived sooner than anticipated. We parked and loaded our MANY bags onto the Park and Ride and headed to Hartsfield. When we arrived, the Sanders and Susan proceeded to check-in outside. Susan passed with flying colors! The Sanders…not so much. They couldn’t deal with us inside so we received VIP treatment inside. After Mom (Jennifer) frantically thought we lost a bag, and a bag attendant misplaced one of our passports, we discovered that we were missing our ticket number. Thanks to the wonderful lady at Hartsfield and a few phone calls, we finally got checked in…or so we thought. As we were completing our check-in, Nicky brought us an extra bag to check. Apparently, while we were dealing with our check-in fiasco, Wayne discovered that he was missing his passport and didn’t know if he would make the flight. The suitcase held valuable supplies and we needed to make sure it came with us. Now, if you have flown post- 9/11, you know that they quiz you about your luggage..did you pack your luggage, did anyone put anything else in your bag…etc, etc. Well, you should have seen the look that we got as we added a last minute bag from a stranger….thankfully, she let it slide and all bags made the plane! However, Wayne was still missing from the picture. After not finding his passport in the car, he called his son Dylan who miraculously was at the Mall of Georgia. He graciously agreed to drive all the way home and look for the passport. With nothing to do but worry and waste time, we headed to grab our last decent meal for awhile. Thankfully, Dylan called 45 minutes later with the passport in hand and rushed it to Atlanta!! At 4:00, Wayne successfully checked in and we moved to security. THANK YOU DYLAN!

Hartsfield security is like no other. They are serious. They don’t play games. They don’t waste time. Well, this day was like any other. Thankfully there weren’t any lines! We walked right in and waited to endure this exciting treat! I (Jessica) never get stopped (knock on wood). I breezed right through with no problems. David, who once refused to take his shoes off and had to sit in a cubicle, shockingly breezed through without incident. Of course, this was too good to be true. Unfortunately, they didn’t like Susan and they didn’t like…Wayne! After all that he had been through…. We finally made it to our terminal around 4:45 to sit and wait on our plane. What a relief to finally be all together and ready to board!

Well, the fun didn’t stop there…..

As we (the Sanders) boarded the plane, there seemed to be a problem with our tickets. We were all pulled aside and there was some talk about a bag….hmmmmm….. However, they let us though without any issue!
So the ten person Bulgaria group loaded the plane ready to take off. An hour later….we FINALLY were in the air. Apparently, the machine that scans the bags decided to quit working so we could not take off until they manually entered every bag into the system.

Oh what fun the Atlanta airport has to offer!! The whole day we were on edge about what would lie ahead for us next! It was definitely a nerve-racking, frantic, and uneasy afternoon! Thankfully, this year we are all together (we made it to Prague) and still in one piece!

Please keep us in your prayers! Love you all!

1 comment:

  1. So glad you guys have made it through the first leg! Keep me posted. Love you!

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