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#313531 12/03/08 03:55 PM
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,888
reaper Offline OP
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"If you win the rat race, you're still a rat"!

Johnny Grief told me that was his dad's favorite saying about the states, as we were sitting at the pool party Saturday listening to Kelly and John Arthur strum away the afternoon.

On your mark...
So we were all sad on the flight home. Morgan had woken up saying she didn't want to go to school, or leave "Beeze".
We arrived at DFW and stood in the long Customs line. I knew what was coming. There is a bad dude from Texas named "Ricky Grimm". The have been looking for him for at least three years now. "Mr. Grimm, room 2 please" the officer said. So off to secondary with the family. We waited while two big fat dudes ate snacks, laughed and talked on the phone. The clock was ticking and we only had 20, then 15, then 10 minutes to get our luggage, re-check it, dash to the gate and catch our flight. Down to finally five minutes and fat guy #2 calls my name. He gives me my passport and off we scurry. When we get downstairs our 3 bags are slowly going around the conveyor by themselves. We grab them and dash out to re-check them, stopping quickly to get Morgan's medicine out of her suitcase before we go on. She gulps it down and off to the re-check belt. The guys get our bags and up we go, through security again, shoes off, belt off, you know the drill. Of course Alec has marbles, seashells and Belikin caps in his pockets. Luckily our gate to San Diego was in the "D" terminal, so it was right there out of security. There was a lot of folks just hanging out, so I knew we were delayed. The plane wa being cleaned and fueled from it's last flight so we had time for a snack. We grabbed a couple happy meals and a quarter pounder to go and headed back to the gate. We all sat on the floor eating processed crap, all the while thinking about a lobster burritto from Warraguma.

Get set...
We finally boarded the plane. It was a 757. Why does everyone think no one is behind them on a flight trying to also get to their seats? The flight attendants were edgy and we were still at the gate! After about 25 minutes we all were seated and off we went. It was a smooth flight and we all nodded off. The young man next to me was a Navy SEAL in training and had just finished "Hell Week". He snoozed the entire flight. What a nice young man and he made me think the younger generation still has some redeeming qualities! As we descended into San Diego I started sensing something was up. We made a few turns and all of a sudden we were in complete darkness. I knew we must have gone out over the Pacific and mentioned to mrs. reaper something was amiss. Sure enough the Captain came on and told us we were fogged in, or really "out" of San Diego and would have to land at Ontario Intl. Collectively you would have thought everyone was just diagnosed with termional cancer. A buzz went through the plane. "Oh no", "Where is Ontario?", "But my ride is waiting!". One woman behind me just blurted out "Just land the plane on instruments"! I guess she hasn't seen the two big hills on each side of the runways at Lindbergh Field! Kristine and I just looked at each other and smiled. Back to the Rat Race.

Go!
I work in Ontario, it's about 115 miles from San Diego. Of course I didn't have a car at the firehouse and we landed at 12:15, so I didn't want to wake up the guys and borrow a car. When we got off of the plane and got to baggage claim there must have been two or three thousand people there! Flights all across Southern California were landing at OIA! It was mayhem. American Airlines said they were getting busses to take us to San Diego and they would be there in half an hour. Right! Pull my other leg and it plays "Jingle Bells"! I grabbed the bags and Kris called Hertz. We knew a rental was the only way wew were getting to San Diego before sunlight! She made a reservation and I dashed the half a mile to the rental car area, sweating out "One Barrel" all of the way! There were only two customers ahead of me. I couldn't believe it. I got a car and drove over to the terminal to grab the family. The wait for the San Diego busses was now up to 45 minutes! The kids piled in the car and we drove home, in the fog. We arrived at our doorstep at 2:50AM. At least we weren't on the TACA flight we saw there. They waited on the plane for 9 hours. No Customs at OIA! Mrs. reaper had to go to work at 8 and Alec had school. It was a two pot of coffee morning. I went out to my car with Morgan to go to the grocery store. Of course I started the car to a slow whrrr, whrrr, click, click, click. A dead battery after 2 weeks. Murphy's Law...

Damn I miss Estel's...

reaper #313540 12/03/08 04:12 PM
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,925
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Theres no place like home wink


Reality..What a concept!
reaper #313541 12/03/08 04:15 PM
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 4,672
L
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L
Like they say, if you play, you pay! LOL. At least the fam is safe and sound. We had some fog landing in SAC early Sat a.m. and the last thing I wanted to do was drive in it!

Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 10,850
E
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E
What Rat Race ? Every day ia a weekend grin

Ernie B #313569 12/03/08 06:21 PM
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 5,255
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i'm still visualizing reaper, attache' case in hand, hurdling over bags and people like OJ simpson in the old commercial...

Ernie B #313570 12/03/08 06:22 PM
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 539
J
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J
I think Morgan has the right idea. Just stay in Belize....

JeanH #313577 12/03/08 06:54 PM
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 3,955
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Just glad everyone is safe. Sure made for an interesting contrast coming from San Pedro -- makes you appreciate the time you get in Belize with family.

Thanks for this...


I will have a Belikin -- put it on klcman's tab.
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 8,880
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Reaper, why don't you get yourself a Nexus, Global or some such Home Security card? Then you should never have to worry about that nasty Ricky Grimm again.

My Canpass got me through immigration in Houston, even though I was sweating vodka profusely from every pore (cleanup on aisle one), looked guilty as sin and didn't know the answer to the question "Who won the Greycup?" My response "Waaaa? I've absolutely no clue." His raised eyebrows "You don't know? Didn't Calgary play in the Greycup?" My response "Waaaa??!! Sir, I've ABSOLUTE no clue!" I pulled out my Canpass card and said "perhaps this will help?" and he took one look, nodded and waived me through.




A fish and a bird can fall in love, but where will they build their nest?

reaper #313624 12/03/08 10:25 PM
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 477
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Rich, that really sucks. But thank you so much for sharing - I am going to bookmark this post and bring it up every time I feel the *stresses* of Belize. Glad everyone got home safe.

Last edited by Caye Connect; 12/03/08 10:25 PM.
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,337
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Hahaha!!!!!!!I needed a laugh reaper! Sorry it was at your expense.

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