The Joys of Air Travel...

Almost 4 weeks have passed since I started the tale of our adventure in the Amazon – again, I sit in an airport, this time waiting for the return flight to Sao Paulo.  We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends and being back in the States over the past few weeks; and though it’s hard to leave this place where we feel most comfortable, it is time to get back into our own space and into a routine.  We have been on the road a lot, between Huntington, Charleston, SC, our camp on the Greenbrier River, Pittsburgh, and back to Huntington.  We were able to share in my brother’s wedding and help welcome his beautiful bride, Jenn, into our family.  The boys and Matt spent hours fishing by the river at our camp, and I spent hours shopping and enjoying the low prices and great deals that can be found at Target, Kohl’s, and Marshalls.  We’ve slept in a lot of different beds, and been the recipients of wonderful hospitality from terrific friends and family.  It has been a wonderful trip – and has taken us a bit longer to get to Brazil than anticipated.  One of the worst electrical storms we have ever seen struck Charleston, WV last Friday, just about the time we were to board our flight to Charlotte.  By the time we finally were able to get off the ground and land in NC, it was too late – our flight to Rio had already left.

Upon our arrival in Charlotte, we were told we had been rebooked through JFK in New York, then would be on to Rio and Sao Paulo the next day. Again, we were blessed by having good friends – Charlie and Kristen – who graciously picked us up at the airport and gave us beds for the night.  We enjoyed a short visit with them, and returned to the airport Saturday morning anticipating our flights home.  After trying to check-in to our flight and receiving a message that our reservation could not be located, we were a bit worried.  The agent at the desk found that we were confirmed on a flight to JFK, but had no record of any seats for us on the flight to Rio.  To make matters worse, there were no seats available on any flights going to Brazil, anywhere!  Eventually, the agent found a flight that appeared to have seats leaving out of Houston that night.  We held our breath until he told us all four of us had been rebooked, heading to Houston, then on to Sao Paulo.  

Imagine our fury and disappointment when we arrived in Houston, headed to the Continental desk to check in and found that, once again, there was no record of us being booked on that flight.  While I desperately talked to the customer service agent, Matt was on the phone with a representative for US Airways trying to figure out what was going on.  We never really got a satisfactory answer as to how this could have happened to us, TWICE!!!  Though she was trying to be helpful, the lady at Continental could do nothing to help us – the flight we thought we were taking was overbooked as it was, and there was nothing else leaving Houston that night.  As a matter of fact, there appeared to be no available seats on any flights to Sao Paulo until Tuesday – keep in mind this was only Saturday.  Matt, meanwhile, was on the phone for four hours, yes, FOUR HOURS, with US Airways before finally having confirmed flights 2 days later to Washington, D.C. and Sao Paulo.   

Resigned to the fact that we would be in Houston for a couple of nights, we found a hotel where we could stay and went about the business of trying to locate our luggage.  At this point, we had been all over the Houston airport, and now headed back on a train to a third terminal, where we had been told our bags were being held.  Once we explained our situation for the hundredth time, the sympathetic baggage agent set about locating and retrieving our bags.  By this point, it was almost 11:00 PM, the boys were exhausted, and we decided Matt would stay behind to wait the hour and a half we were told it could take and I took the kids to the hotel.  At half-past midnight, Matt showed up at the hotel – empty-handed.  Somehow, our bags were sent to Sao Paulo on the flight we couldn’t board!  We had been wearing the same clothes for two full days, and had nothing else with us.  Too worked up to sleep, Matt went down to the lobby to call US Airways, yet again, to complain and demand reimbursement for hotels, meals, and clothing.  We will still have to file a claim, so who knows if we’ll actually get reimbursed, but we will certainly try.

After getting some sleep and filling our stomachs with an abundant breakfast the next morning, we rented a car and headed to a local Wal-Mart to outfit ourselves with clean clothes.  Seeing that we had a whole day in Houston, we decided to make the best of it and enjoyed the afternoon at the Space Center and had a delicious dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  I was able to do laundry and the boys even got to swim in the hotel pool to burn off some energy, both last night and this morning.  Now, we sit again at the Houston airport, after being re-booked three times, hoping and praying that today’s travels will get us safely home tomorrow.  This has certainly been the most hectic and bizarre trip I have ever taken – and I hope it remains that way!

So, now, I’ll try to get back onto the story of our trip to the Amazon.  The morning after our spectacular sunset viewing, the drivers from the Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge picked us up promptly at 8:30.  We boarded the vans for the 3 hour trip into the Jungle.... (to be continued - hopefully from my living room in Brazil!)...