Mom, Johnny Depp, & Home from Houston, Part 3

In my last post, I mentioned I had a picture of Mom with Johnny Depp on our flight home.  I'll post that in just a sec.  I also mentioned Mom's pat-down fiasco(s) due to the shimmery nature of the shirts she wore to the airport on Friday, Sunday, AND Monday.  I never explained why we had three unfortunate episodes with airport security, so for all two of you who may be reading and may be somewhat inclined to show an ounce of interest, here's what happened last Sunday and Monday:

On Sunday morning, we awakened to an overcast day in Houston, Texas, packed our belongings in our rental car, enjoyed a lovely breakfast, and drove to the airport for a noon-ish flight.  Mom had her pat-down while going through security (which we had anticipated), and we were told that she was alarming the security scanners with her shiny shirt and NOT with her knee replacement, which we had assumed was the reason for her pat-down in Little Rock.  So, we chalked it up as a lesson learned and resolved to wear non-metallic clothing on future flights.

We found the gate where we were to board and had some time to spare.  For an unknown reason, our flight was delayed for about 45 minutes, but we didn't mind.  When we finally boarded our plane, the pilot apologized and explained that poor visibility in Arkansas was the reason for delay and that all seemed fine for takeoff.  So, we left Texas and headed toward home on a very turbulent flight.  When we were approximately 15 minutes from landing in Little Rock, our pilot announced that due to ZERO visibility in Little Rock, the airlines had instructed him to turn the flight around and head back to Houston.  (From what I was told, the Little Rock and Memphis areas experienced some severe weather that evening.)

So that's what happened.  From about 2:30 until 8:30 that night, we searched for our luggage, only to find out that it had somehow made it to Little Rock even though all passengers were told that all flights for the rest of the day had been canceled.  It was a mess, y'all.  I'll spare you most of the details, but I will say that God was again gracious because of all of the passengers who were trying to find a way back to Arkansas, we were the only two who were NOT put on standby.  We had confirmed seats for a flight at 7:10 a.m. on Monday.

We had a few adventures and met some nice and some obnoxious people during our ordeal at the airport on Sunday.  Some of the highlights were getting kicked out of the terminal and not being able to get back to our gate because our new boarding passes had the next day's date on it, having a chance to minister to fellow travelers who had no cash to find food or shelter for the night, and spending another night in a hotel in Houston--this time, with no luggage.  THAT is why Mom set off the security scanners a third time; she couldn't have changed out of her metallic shirt if she had wanted to because our luggage caught an earlier flight home than we did. 

Are you still reading all this babble?  Bless your heart.

Oh, remember in yesterday's post that I mentioned that sometimes Mom just can't keep her mouth shut?  Well, here's one more example of that:  When we arrived back at the Houston airport on Monday morning --at 5 stinking a.m., mind you-- the security folks were getting ready for a shift change and the big honking full body scanner machine had been turned off or SOMETHING.  We were directed AROUND the big scanner machine to more primitive, less embarrassing scanner.  I walked through the scanner with no problem, gathered my belongings, and prepared to move on to our gate.  My mother, God bless her, just HAD to announce that she would need a pat down because she would probably set off some alarms with her shirt or her knee.  So, she walked through the same scanner, which to my knowledge didn't have any objections to her clothing, but she still had to receive a pat down because she had said something out loud about it and the guards felt obligated to go ahead with it.  I'm thinking that she would've avoided that last bit of public discomfort if she just hadn't said anything.  Mom, if you read this and I'm wrong, please correct me:)  Also, lest anyone think I'm being disrespectful to my mother, she said so herself that she sometimes just can't keep her mouth shut.

In case you have actually kept reading up to this point, I'll go ahead and end your agony.  I know all you really wanted was to see Johnny Depp with my mother anyway, so here's that long-awaited picture:

If I could give back to you all the brain cells you used in reading this post, I would gladly do so. 

Thanks for hanging in here with me.

Bless your heart.