The flight from London to Dallas was on American Airlines which was a HUGE improvement in the quality of the service, equipment and staff attitude from what we had experienced on British Airlines. While taking our seats, the man seated behind us noticed Dennis and I saw the “oh god – why me look?” cross his face. Having been seated near loud, obnoxious, ill-behaved children on extremely long flights, I knew EXACTLY what he was thinking. I issued a general blanket apology prior to taking my seat and settled in hoping for the best.
Dennis didn’t take any time to settle into his seat and start snacking on the mixed nuts. It wasn’t long before he had the flight attendants oohing and awing over him. The two ladies serving our section of the plane checked in about every 30 minutes to see if Dennis needed anything. One even asked permission to have her picture taken with him. The little guy passed the 10 hour flight with multiple viewing s of Shrek and the original Winnie the Pooh movie and only 3 hours of sleep. The kid made a long flight like a pro! As we were disembarking, the guy seated behind us along with 2 other men, I hadn’t even noticed, approached us to say how impressed they were with Dennis and how well behaved he was.
Upon arriving in Dallas we had only an hour and a half to clear immigration, have Dennis made an American citizen, clear customs and switch terminals. I’ll admit to have been feeling karma challenged while we were being held captive in Russia and I had no faith that we would make the flight to Minneapolis. We cruised thru immigrations and visit to the special window when Dennis’ U.S. citizen was processed and granted. I was hoping for a fun picture of the Dennis becoming a U.S. citizen, but the sleep deprived Russian was having an antisocial moment and given the limited time available a sleep deprived I decided that the photo just wasn’t that important.
Keeping a close eye on the clock, I knew we were making good use of our short amount of time when we claimed our bags and headed for customs. The custom agent did ask to see my newly purchased Russian fur hat and he wanted to know if it was really cold enough in Russian to need something like that. My response was delivered with a dead-pan response of “yep”.
With the bags rechecked, the next hurdle was a security checkpoint. I got our shoes and coats off, liquids out of my carry-on bag, the computer and DVD player unpacked and myself and the non-English speaking three year old through the metal detector and patted down. That accomplished, I need to get us redressed and stuff repacked, so we could find the nearest sky rail stop and get us to the correct terminal and find our gate.
I was tired and getting overheated in my winter sweater and coat. I got my shoes and coat on and got Dennis sat down on the floor and gave him his shoes and told him in Russian to put them on. I got busy repacking the liquids and electronics. As I turned to help Dennis get his coat on, I discovered him laying spread eagled on the floor spinning in circles laughing with reckless abandon. I was torn between wanting to relish in his ability to find joy in such a simple act and wanting to cry out of frustration. I stepped into the rotating whirl of arms and legs, getting him stopped and against his will, stuffing his feet into a pair of snow boots and arms into a winter coat. After grabbing the roller bag, the duffle bag, back pack and the Russian I started looking for a sign directing me to the nearest sky rail stop. The Russian spotted the little people hauling cart; he let go of my hand and ran shrieking toward the cart and its driver. By the time I caught up, he had climbed aboard and was shouting “truck, truck, truck”.
While attempting a capture, I asked the driver where to find the nearest rail stop and how long it would take to get to our gate. When he learned where we needed to be and how soon we needed to be there, he informed us that our best chance was to take a seat on his cart and let him deliver us to our gate. I was VERY happy to oblige, so I sat back and held on to the little person who was trying to hang his head over the side while squealing gleefully all the way. The driver was good to his word and delivered us to our gate just as the first boarding call was made. Since we now qualify as “people needing extra time”, we were first down the jet way. Upon being greeted by the flight attendant, Dennis replied with the quote from Sesame Street of “Wuga Wuga Wuga Wuga, Woo, Woo, Woo”. He got great service on this flight as well.
We finally landed in Minneapolis and were met by my dear David Weinand who hauled the exhausted travelers to Melanie’s house and dropped us off with an welcome kit from his wife and daughters that included homemade cupcakes, snacks, a VERY cool kiddy Black and Decker tool kit and the loan of a car seat for the duration of our stay. Thanks and hugs were given and the weary travels headed off to bed after 20 some hours of travel.
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