Ready to get in the car!
We arrived 3 hours early at General Mitchell so they had enough time to process our 20 pieces of luggage (gulp). Each piece was packed to be as close to 50 lbs as possible. The check-in clerk asked if they were 50 lbs and I told her that they should all be very close to 50 lbs. They took my word for it and didn't even weigh them for which I was thankful as the overweight fee per bag is $400 (we brought an extra empty suitcase just in case as the extra bag charge is "only" $200 per)! Nine of our pieces were plastic "Action Packers" (Rubbermaid bins). For those, the attendant placed the luggage tags directly on the lid surface as they don't have a handle to wrap them around like on a regular suitcase. I told the attendant that he should tape the tags as the plastic surface is porous and things don't stick to it very well. He assured me they would be fine (...famous last words)!
The Chicago - Asia 1 flight was delayed 6 hours due to a maintenance issue. So, a LONG wait at the gate which was unusually hot.
The nap we thought would happen on the plane happened at the gate - it was an early morning!
Once we finally boarded it was unusually hot in the jet as well which didn't help our 1-hour wait for take off. The kids kept asking for water but they just had to wait! The long wait may have been a blessing in disguise as 2 or 3 of my Action Packer bins had already lost their luggage tags (just flying MKE to ORD) and I was paged repeatedly at the gate as they tried to figure out whose they were and re-tag them.
The kids enjoyed the continuous music availability!
15 hours later we arrived at Asia 1. United had held the connecting flight to Asia 2 (and other connecting flights) so we de-boarded, rushed thru security TWICE (two different locations one after the other), and re-boarded. With 4 kids, 8 carry ons, several laptops, multiple hard drives, a stroller and a car seat we cringed each time we had to battle going thru a security checkpoint. Needless to say, we were the last ones thru and so an entire 747 was sitting there waiting for US to board to leave for Asia 2...whew!!!
By the time we arrived in Asia 2 (3 AM local time) we were only about 3 hours delayed so we had a 9-hour layover instead of 12. We were able to check in to the transit hotel, shower, change and try to sleep. Josie and Katrina slept the best (having slept the least on the plane), the rest of us were up after about 3 hours. The kids enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in front of a big screen TV showing the World Cup while I checked in. The attendant asked again about my luggage as it seemed the ground crew was trying to identify more action packers without luggage tags...sigh! Once that was all sorted out (again) we went to a kids play area to keep the kids occupied while we waited. We could see our gate from there...still no jet. After a while I thought I better check the departure schedule and of course...the gate had been changed, they were boarding and it was listed as "gate closing". So, we RUSHED to the gate and made it in time but not without an adrenaline rush thinking that we'd missed our flight.
We arrived in Asia 3 and stood in line for immigration. Right up until we came to the gate, Josie and I had been furiously filling out the immigration forms for us and all the kids. After a 20 minute wait we made it to the counter and the immigration official said we had the wrong forms (what, after all that work?)! He needed the remaining stubs from the immigration forms we had filled out when we left the country last August. Fortunately, I had kept those and had them along as I thought we may need them. They weren't completely filled out so I had to finish filling out all six of those while Josie stood aside with the kids. By this time Katrina (2) had had enough of the traveling gig and not enough sleep and was crying inconsolably in her stroller. We finally finished and were off to claim our 20 pieces of luggage...we hoped.
Three porters helped us load piece after piece of luggage on their carts. Count and re-count, we had 17 pieces. We waited and then the luggage carousel stopped. We were missing 3...guess which ones? Action packers of course! :-) I wished the United attendant from the Milwaukee airport could have been there. I would definitely have had some luggage-tag-pointers for him! We proceeded to the "Lost and Found" (lost luggage) office and began filling out the necessary paperwork which took about half an hour. Once we were ready to leave our three porters were waiting for us and ready to talk money. They asked for about triple the going rate per bag. I told them it was too much and that I was willing to pay the normal amount. After going back and forth they suddenly just took off and left us standing there with all our luggage. That was strange, it had never happened to me before. God was looking out for us though. The "lost luggage attendant" came to our rescue and offered his assistant to help us get all our luggage through customs, upstairs, through security, and to the domestic airline check-in. Wow, thank you Lord!
We were on our way but barely. We stacked as many carry ons as we could on top of the luggage carts and then Mitchell, the assistant, and I each pushed a cart and tried to navigate our "caravan" through the masses of people. Customs was a breeze, another "Thank-you Lord" as they didn't make us open anything. Making our way upstairs on the elevators was a challenge. There were just so many people everywhere. Once we made it upstairs we didn't know which security checkpoint / gate enter as there weren't any signs (at least not inside) saying which airlines were where. Finally I just asked a security officer and he pointed us to the right gate.
This security check point was the worst of all as we not only had to put our carry ons thru but all 17 of checked bags as well. Wow, was that a circus and total mayhem all at the same time. It's a wonder that we didn't lose a bag or a child somewhere in that process. Just after stacking all the luggage back on the carts we had to take them all off again (one at a time) to have them bound with plastic binding (required by the airline). By then I was really sweating! We finally made it to the check-in counter and took a deep breath. Our little assistant had been with us this whole time giving his all to help for which I was so grateful. I paid him what I had offered the other three porters all together. He had definitely earned it. Now we had one more hurdle to overcome...
I knew I would have to pay overweight again on our domestic flight so I was bracing myself for that (not knowing how much it would be). After checking 6 of our suitcases the attendant said it would be cheaper if I sent the rest of them (11 pieces) using the cargo desk. Don't ask me how it it would be cheaper as it was going on the same flight but I took his word for it. They checked in the other 11 pieces and by this time we were getting concerned about time as they would be boarding soon. They gave me the total cost for the extra bags and then I had to find a place to exchange USD to pay the bill. Two of the attendants took me way to the other end of the check-in area to a money changer. I got my Rupiahs and hurried back to the desk to pay. Josie was wondering where I'd trekked off to since it was so far away. The kids were starting to "break down" again with all the waiting so we were glad to be on our way to...oh no...ANOTHER SECURITY CHECK POINT...ARGH!!!
Our flight was an hour late so we made it just fine and our missionary colleagues picked us up on the other end. Boy, I was sure glad to let them help with the lifting. The other three lost pieces showed up the next day so I drove out to the airport with the boys to get them. That was another huge "Thank you Lord" as we didn't know if we'd see those bags again (one of them had Josie's sewing machine in it). So, we were very thankful that everything made it in the end.
