Dad and Camille at the SLC airport prior to departue
Both of us (Camille and I) had no sleep the night before so we were quite tired arriving at the airport at 5:30 a.m. Our flight wasn’t until 7:50 but we were advised to get to the airport early as we had no assigned seats. After a leisure check in, we went and had a nice breakfast at Dick Clarks American Bandstand Restaurant. Camille was about ½ through her omelet when she discovered a bug had been included complementary – no additional cost. We pointed this out to the waitress and manager, who were very kind to ‘comp’ us Camille’s breakfast after bringing out a new meal.
Our plane to Chicago was rather small – a 2 X 2 seat plane with a total of about 80 seats, all of them occupied. About an hour into our flight I needed to use the restroom. I went to the back where the sole restroom was located and noticed the “occupied” / “unoccupied” sticker had been torn off, thus making it difficult to see if anyone was inside. I then noticed the door handle with the “push” sign directly over the latch. I went ahead and pushed on the handle and could not enter, thus confirming the restroom was indeed occupied. I waited a few minutes and another gentleman got up and waited in line with me – standing by his seat a few rows away. I thought I had better let the person in the lavatory know there were two travels who also needed to use the restroom so I gently knocked on the door – not too loudly to say “hey, hurry up”, but a gentle knock which said “Hmm just to give you a heads up, there is at least one person out here waiting to get in”. After a few more minutes, the guy in line gave me a stern look – like it was my fault or something. I just sheepishly shrugged my shoulders and pointed to the door as if to say – “hey it’s not my fault – talk to the person behind the door”. I pushed on the door handle again, wanting to see if perhaps I didn’t push hard enough the first time. Yup, sure enough it was locked. Another lady down a few rows from “Mr. Harsh Look” stood up so she could put her dibs in for the lavvy. It was becoming quite noticeable to some of the passengers near the plane that my father must be in the bathroom, complete with a magazine or good book to read. Just then the thought came to me that perhaps I should turn the knob and push. I followed my instincts and did that. I turned the knob, pushed on the door and to my surprise – and relief – found an empty restroom. I quickly entered, did my business and sheepishly walked back to my seat. As I passed Mr. Stern Look, I tried to explain to him the entire situation from the missing sticker on the restroom door, the “push” sign which should have read “turn and then push”, all in the two seconds as we passed each other in the isle. All that came out was some incomprehensible gibberish about “sign” and “push”. Embarrassed I just slinked back to my seat and started laughing as I told Camille what had happened.
Camille enjoying an Italian meal at Chicago Airport
After changing terminals, and calling home, we were able to hunt down another nice restaurant and have a delicious Italian meal. We were seated right next to the window so had a great view of the airport – not a spectacular view, but it had its own merits and interest. After a long and leisure lunch we meandered over to our gate and had a nice 30 minute wait until we boarded our flight from Chicago to Frankfort Germany complements of Lufthansa Airlines. I almost half expected, to hear the voice of Elder Deter Uchdorf welcoming us aboard the plane and hoping we would enjoy our flight. The 8+ hour ride was uneventful and I did manage to get an hour or so of sleep. I was able to get back into my book I started reading towards the end of our first leg to Ukraine with Cheryl, Three Cups of Tea, by Gregg Mortensen.
No comments:
Post a Comment