Swollen Ankles and Airplanes

I flew home to Alabama last weekend to see my aunt receive an award from the college we both attended.  As is always my luck, my trip did not go as planned.  It never seems to fail that I have issues traveling when I am trying to get somewhere for something.  This trip was no exception.  And factor in being nearly 6 months pregnant and that made the day all that much more fun.  After taking Kiddo to school, Chris and I headed south towards the airport stopping for breakfast at Chick Fil A and a quick Target run on the way.  Just the day before, I had been telling him the story of my 16 hour trip to Alabama in 2007.  I guess I jinxed myself because Thursday turned out to be much the same.

We arrived at the airport around 9 for my 10:20 flight and everything was going swimmingly until the plane that was supposed to take me to DFW arrived.  Apparently the plane needed maintenance and no one was certain how long that would take.  The flight was cancelled.  At that point, cell phones came out and everyone hurried to get in line at the counter to make arrangements to get to their respective destinations.  The American Airlines rep I talked to apparently didn't get the memo that the flight was actually cancelled but just delayed.  She left me on the same flight and placed me on a later flight out of DFW.  Fortunately for me, I decided to stay in line because the counter agent told me the flight I was on was not going to be leaving Austin and placed me on another flight to DFW.  Now, there are only 3 flights out of DFW to Mobile on a daily basis.  One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.  I was originally scheduled to leave Dallas on the afternoon flight which clearly wasn't going to happen since I wouldn't be flying to Dallas in the afternoon.  My new flight to DFW was leaving at 4:40 which meant I wouldn't get to Mobile until 7:55 that evening.  Lucky me!  I got to spend the next 6 hours in the Austin airport.

At that point, I contemplated what to do.  Did I call Chris and beg him to drive 45 minutes out of his way to pick me up for a couple of hours only to have to drop me back off before he had to pick Kiddo up from school?  Did I call someone to pick me up and take me to work since my office was only 10 minutes from the airport and try to be productive for a couple of hours?  Did I want to fool with waddling my way through security again?  Eventually I just decided to stay put.  My feet and back were already starting to hurt walking around the concourse and at least I had a good book to read.  Clay was even nice enough to spend his breaks hanging out with me since he works at the airport.  The moments of brotherly kindness are few and far between so you have to take them where you can get them, I guess.

When you spend that much time in the airport, you do get to see some interesting things.  Unfortunately I
couldn't snap pictures of all the strange outfits and weird happenings I observed.  I did, however, learn that the locks on the bathroom doors are made by a company called Hiny Hiders.

Also, spending 6 hours in one airport and a total of 11 hours traveling definitely does a number on the ankles of a pregnant woman.  Now, I started swelling a couple of weeks ago so this wasn't a first but my cankles were by far the worst I had seen them at the end of the day.  This was taken about an hour before my flight left Austin.  (At least my pedicure looked nice.)

Once I finally arrived in Mobile after barely having enough time to find a bathroom and take the tram to the next concourse for my flight out of DFW, I was exhausted and hungry.  And of course, my luggage was no where to be found.  Fortunately, a very friendly American Airlines employee remembered taking my suit case off a plane earlier in the day and brought my bag to me.  All-in-all, I learned one very important lesson: my body does not like traveling while pregnant.  It is not something I will be doing again anytime soon or during future pregnancies.