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Saturday, January 07 2023

This is Red, our faithful suitcase who has traveled with us for a number of years. Don't be too critical about his sad appearance, because he has been through a harrowing ordeal as of late. The fact that he stands today is testimony to his amazing fortitude and determination. Please allow me to elaborate.

On Christmas Day, and the 2am end of our 6 hour "flight renegotiation session" with Southwest Airlines, it was concluded that we could not make it from Dallas to Disney World for Christmas/New Year unless we had a Pilot. A wise decision.  SWA declared that it was impossible to pull Red the suitcase off our canceled flight, and that they had no choice but to take Red to Florida on his own. We were invited to wait for him to return at the end of the week since there was no way to get US to Florida. We thought he would have a fabulous vacation and have been able to tell us some great stories!

But Red is very sensitive, and we could not bear the idea of him traveling alone, so we managed to book an alternate flight on United Airlines.  After all, our kids were waiting for us, and we had the week booked at Disney anyway. The only catch was that we would need to fly from Houston, rather than Dallas, so we made the drive to Houston, which we So enjoy, and flew out a day later.

As you can imagine, when we arrived in the Orlando Airport, we were in eager anticipation of being reunited with our dear Red! We looked far and wide, through thousands of other suitcases traveling alone, but alas, he was nowhere to be found. This was sad because he was missing our trip, AND we had given him the important task of carrying our shoes, coats, toiletries. You know, the important stuff! He so loves to feel important, so we go along with it.

Luckily, SWA had a great place for us to stand for a few hours so that we could tell the nice baggage people that sweet Red had become a …  lost suitcase. We were happy to wait past midnight since Ubers are so easy to find overnight.

As it turned out, poor Red was still patiently waiting in Dallas for his turn to fly to Orlando. Poor Red! We told the baggage handlers  where we were staying for the week, and they promised to be on the lookout if he happened to make to Orlando. They suggested that we use some of our money to buy some new stuff, I mean, who doesn't like shopping on vacation, right?

We reluctantly began our vacation on a 2 day delay, but made it to Disney World, the happiest place on Earth! We were amazed to find SO many people who made the decision to drive WITH their luggage to Disney World instead of sending it by air. I guess their suitcases don’t have the same adventuresome spirit as our Red.

What a happy day! We were finally reunited with precious Red on Thursday as we headed into the park. It only took him 4 days to make the trip! He looked like he had some unusual experiences along the way, and we can't wait to hear all about them over the years. We decided to travel together on the way back, just to be safe. What a magical journey!

Posted by: Rob Overton AT 09:08 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
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