Wait, what? (The adventure before the adventure)
Writing assignment from Christian Writers Workshop.
Assignment: Write about an adventure
Paul and I love going on adventures. Ever since we were dating, anytime we go anywhere together we call it an adventure. Doesn’t matter if we are driving through a new-to-us neighborhood, or flying halfway across the world to Italy…if it is something we haven’t done before, it is an adventure.
In January of 2019, we decided to take a 5 day vacation to Cancun. 2018 was a big year for us and we needed a break. We figured 5 days by the pool would do the trick. As we excitedly boarded our Alaskan Airlines flight out of Seattle, we had no idea just how much of an adventure we were about to have.
Upon our approach to Cancun we noticed large storm clouds looming ahead. We started our descent through the thick, angry clouds and that plane started rockin’ and rollin’. Turbulence wasn’t something that normally bothered me all that much on flights. My rational brain usually took over and reminded me that stuff like this happens all the time. But as we continued bumping our way through the clouds, my irrational brain was aggressively tapping me on the shoulder and whispering, “ummm this doesn’t feel normal.” I closed my eyes, leaned my head back and prayed that God would protect us and help us to land safely.
DING! The muffled voice of the captain came on overhead and I opened my eyes. “We’ve been advised of some wind-shear on the ground so we need to go back up and try this landing again.”
Oh boy.
We went back up through those same clouds we had just come down through. More rocking. More rolling. This time there was some side to side action as well as some violent shaking to top it all off.
And then back down we went, through those same angry clouds to try the landing again.
Oh boy. Again.
At this point Paul got his GoPro out of his bag to record what was happening. We needed digital proof of just how wild it was. If we hadn’t been buckled in, our heads would have hit the top of the plane. Multiple times. Things that weren’t being held onto for dear life were flying around the cabin. Flight attendants were stumbling down the walkway assisting the people who were, ahem, filling up the little bags they include in the seat back pockets.
DING! The captain came on again, “Uhhhh sorry folks for the bumpy ride, this storm is getting the best of us and we aren’t able to make the landing in Cancun right now. We are being re-routed to Belize.”
Wait, What?
Belize? Is that even close to Cancun? I didn’t even know where Belize was and now we were flying there? I pulled out my phone to look it up and realized that it was only a couple of countries over. Hey look at that, even in the grips of near death turbulence I was still learning something. Fantastic.
Once we stopped playing the “how much can we shake this plane around” game by going up and down through the dark and ominous storm clouds, the rocking and rolling finally ceased. Color came back into peoples faces. Things got returned, including Paul’s book which had somehow ended up all the way in the back of the plane. The little bags that had finally fulfilled their purpose were thrown away and sighs of relief could be heard all around. Sidenote: As weird as it may sound, even though turbulence didn’t normally bother me, knowing the plane could shake that much and NOT fall out of the sky actually made me feel even more confident in air travel.
But the adventure was only halfway over because now we were headed to a country whose airport wasn’t actually big enough for our Boeing 747.
Ok ok, that was a little dramatic. I’m not actually sure why the captain told us that upon our descent into Belize because we landed just fine. Either way, the weather was clear and we landed in Belize with no problem and waited on the plane to see what would happen next.
At this point, most of the passengers were now besties. Normally you board a plane, fly somewhere and that’s that. But when the entire plane experiences something together, it bonds you. You now have something to talk about with the stranger sitting next to who you were slightly annoyed with three hours earlier because they were hogging the armrest.
Everyone was chatting anxiously while we sat on the tarmac in Belize wondering how long it would be until the storm passed and we could get back in the air and on our way to Cancun.
DING! “Uhhhh hey there folks, so uhhhh we have discovered that we have a problem with one of the wings of the plane so we are going to need to have you all de-board until we can figure out what we are going to do.”
Wait, What?
Nervous chatter increased in volume. We were all still coming down off the adrenaline high from almost plummeting to our deaths and now we find out that the wing was broken the whole time? And how long are we going to be here? What is going on!?
While we were all shuffling off the plane unsure about what was going to happen next, we overheard the pilot whispering to one of the flight attendants that the turbulence we just all went through was the WORST he had ever experienced in his 25 years of flying. And I didn’t even use one of the little baggies! I swelled with pride at my iron stomach.
We waited for an hour or so in the Belize airport before we had an update. The problem with the plane was indeed a problem and because it was going to take a while to fix, they were going to get us a new plane. FROM SEATTLE. I guess they have a bunch lying around for situations like this? Either way, this meant we would not get to Cancun until the next morning.
Wait, What?
This is the point where I broke down. It wasn’t the near death turbulence. It wasn’t the realization that our plane was broken while going up and down through angry storm clouds. I’m a planner. And this was not in the plan. It was only one night, but my head was spinning with figuring out our missed shuttle and changing hotel reservations and calling the dog sitter and all the things that needed to now happen because THIS WAS NOT IN THE PLAN.
Paul talked me off the ledge and reminded me that this was an adventure. I might have given him some side-eye for being so rational but he did have a point. This would for sure be a story we would tell for years to come.
The airline did a bang up job taking care of us. They were going to bus us to a hotel, put us up for the night, give us meal tickets for both dinner and breakfast and get us back to Cancun by 11am the next morning. They even ended up giving us $400 vouchers for another flight since we lost a night in our Cancun hotel.
As we boarded the plane the next morning we were joking and laughing with the other passengers about everything that had happened. We had all recovered and enjoyed our one night stay in a country that we didn’t even know the location of 24 hours earlier. We made it safely to Cancun that morning ready to finally start our adventure.
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DING! The muffled voice of the captain came on overhead and I quickly opened my eyes. “We’ve been advised of some wind-shear on the ground so we need to go back up and try this landing again.” Oh boy.