It's that time of year again. Time for our annual pilgrimage to Zion for LDS Chaplains' Conference in conjunction with October General Conference. But this year, for the first time in seven years, we'll be making the trip sans children. And to top that, we'll be leaving all of them on a small island in the Pacific to fend for themselves while we're gone. Having a kid who's also an adult isn't so bad after all.
I stayed up most the night before we left, packing and attempting to get quilt squares prepped for travel, to take advantage of the "down time" on the plane. Things pretty much went downhill from there. At 2 AM, it occurred to me to check the passports for the reentry stamp. It had expired yesterday, from last year's trip. (Shocker!) So, add that onto the list of things to do on our way out of town.
When we got to the IPAC, we discover we were supposed to bring a copy of Cliff's PCS orders. Since we've been here going on 2 years now, we both try to mentally inventory the places where such documents might be. We got nothin'. Then, Cliff remembered he had a copy in his office. Which was actually closer than going home (bonus). We got to drag our lovely friend, Jenn along on this adventure. I'm sure she appreciated a routine ride to the airport turning into such a debacle...but she didn't complain a bit.
This was just the beginning of our troubles. When we got to the counter (A little later than we should have. See above.) they had no reservation for Cliff. My travel (arranged through the Church) was fine. Cliff's (arranged through the broken embarrassment that is the US military travel system) was MIA. Cliff had orders. Cliff had an official itinerary. Cliff had a printed CON-FIR-MA-TION-NUM-BER for crying out loud...which you can ONLY get (shocker) when your travel is CON-FIRMED!!! Thanks to modern cellular technology, Cliff was able to get on the phone with the Sgt. at admin while I called Cliff's boss...who said he was running down to the comptroller as we spoke. The one side of Cliff's conversation I could hear did not sound promising. At all. I attempted to inquire of the desk agents (through slow, loud speech and interpretive dance) if my ticket was changeable. Turns out...no. If I didn't fly now, even if Cliff's ticket was straightened out for a later flight...I'd be out of luck. I fought back the tears like I was a nine year old, having to fly on my own to see Grandma, for crying out loud! While it was true that even the later flight off of Okinawa would make him miss the Osaka connection to SFO and he'd be arriving in SLC a full day behind me, I am a grown woman capable of international solo travel! Still, I was SO bummed out. I was looking forward to the long flight with Cliff...now, it would just be drudgery.
We kissed goodbye and I pouted all the way through security and to the gate. I stared out the window at the rain, making it harder to fight back the tears. I sat there wondering if they'd let me check into the hotel or get the rental car without his govt. charge card, and in general, just felt really sorry for myself. The plane filled and the flight attendants prepared for departure...and at the very last minute...who should run aboard, sweat pouring down his forehead, but Cliff. It turns out, the day before, someone had opened up Cliff's travel account and changed something in error, causing it to get kicked back through the approval process, canceling his reservation without his knowledge. Crazy? Yes. But, by getting a hold of the right people, they were able to rush it through the approval process and resubmit it, ALL while the desk agents waited patiently, refreshing the screen every few seconds. Cliff said the three ladies kept shaking their heads...then suddenly one brightened up, the others looked at the screen, then rushed to other screens and typed madly. They tagged his luggage, printed boarding passes and he got the running, high-heeled escort to the gate we've come to know and love.
I was SO grateful not to be making this trip on my own...and especially to be making it with my favorite person...
Even though it looked like this outside...I was all warm and toasty inside.
We had a decent sized layover in Osaka, and we were starving by the time we arrived. There were many choices, but we stuck to our favorite Japanese cuisine. You just can't go wrong with tempura, miso soup and a sushi bowl.
When we finally landed in Salt Lake City, my ankles were the size of tree trunks and I couldn't wait to find the hotel. As we were headed out to the rental car shuttle, we saw this little slice of local culture below and had to gawk a bit...families welcoming their Elders home after their missions. SO sweet. Love me a good homecoming!
We tried to stay up until bedtime, but when we got to our room, decided to take a nap for a couple of hours and then get some dinner. That never happened. We just went to bed and called it good...then woke up starving in the middle of the night, wide awake. Finally at 4:30 we just got up and got ready for the day, and were at breakfast when it opened at 6.
A great start to another wonderful conference!
2 comments:
Don't you love DTS? JR had a similar experience when he left for his school. Plus, he's had to call and have corrections made to his orders twice since he got there, and they canceled his per diem payment because of the fiscal year changeover. He couldn't get that fixed until the BOQ he was staying in called for him to chew someone out because they weren't getting paid. Gotta love it.
Eek! I would have been freaking out! So glad he made the flight! That pic of the missionary homecoming brought back some fond memories of my time in Utah, lol. That was back when they could actually wait at the gate, though. Much more interesting there.
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