The Tale of Carlos Martinez

MY GOSH what a day, and I haven't even left the US

My wonderful father drove me to the airport at 5:15 this morning, for a flight scheduled to Miami at 7:15. And we were even on time, for once. 

I checked one bag, a green duffle, that was filled to the brim. If it weren't for my Aunt Jill, a master packer, I would've undoubtedly needed to use an even bigger bag. But she's a genius, so I didn't have to! The weight of the bag was 54 pounds, only 4 pounds over the limit. The guy at the curb service advised me to remove a couple books to lighten the load, I could only find two, which barely changed the weight, and he told me that was good enough and that he wouldn't make me pay the extra $100 those four extra pounds should've cost me. 

"What a great stroke of luck!" I thought, "This must be a good sign!" 

I had no clue of what was still to come. 

I still had my camera case, full of my most important papers and belongings, and Fisher's neon yellow Patagonia backpack, which was almost my size and held my camping gear: sleeping bag, pillow, blanket, ect. I planned the distribution of my items very specifically: my camera case had pretty much everything I couldn't live without. The backpack held everything else I'd need in case I lost my luggage. However, the plan was always to have both with me on the plane. 

I got through security without a hitch, but my backpack was randomly chosen to be searched and half my belongings tumbled through the hands of the TSA agent and onto to the floor. I picked them up nervously. Careful to grab every item. 

It's here I want to mention that despite my unbelievable fortune in having loving, supportive parents who want to send me to absolutely amazing places all over the world, in the past few years I've developed a lot of anxiety surrounding travel. The fear of not having something I need (whether it's meds or clothes or books or my passport or anything) is a very constant one for me, especially in the airport. I do my best to manage it. But as someone who thinks of themselves as a nester, it's for hard to be in transition between two places. I love adventure and going new places, but it's become harder for me to get myself up and to go.

I got to my gate, on time, probably around 6:30. I say there for 30 minutes before the gate changed and the flight was delayed from 7:15 to 7:45. The group, including myself, got up and moved (I bought some snacks on the way). We all sat at the new gate only to have it be delayed again, this time to 8:30. Irritated, I heard other people talking about a new plane because of a malfunction, and that the flight to Miami before ours had also been delayed. I screwed around on my phone, at my snacks, and sat in silence. We finally heard the call to board. 

I walked up to the ticket people, the ones right before the door that leads toward the plane, and I was told I had too many bags. At that point, I only had the original 2, plus a small strappy wallet purse around my torso. I was told that not only did I have too many bags, but I would have to check my backpack all the way through to Lima. I begged and pleaded to gate check it to Miami, and they said absolutely not. I was very distraught, and I cried a little. But I picked myself up and took out the things I refused to loose, and checked my backpack. At that point it was after 9:15 and I just wanted to get to Miami. 

I sat down in my seat, and was ready to go.  Everyone on the plane settled down, and we finally pulled away from the gate around 9:35. I watch the other planes roll by, and notice a chemical smell. In the past, whenever anything seems wrong on a plane, my method is to pretty much ignore it and pretend all is fine. This tactic has not worked once, because despite rolling up to the runway, the plane turned back around and headed back to the gate. 

By 10:15 they had only really told us that there was some sort of mechanical problem with some tube on the plane, and it would take probably an hour to diagnose. My dad started looking for other flights at this point, I tried watching How to Train Your Dragon on my iPad and talking to my neighbor. Which is a whole different story.

Anyway, at 11ish, they allowed everyone to deplane, but the flight wasn't cancelledz we were almost 4 hours after the scheduled take off time, and they gave us $12 vouchers for food, because that was supposed to make it all better.

I found some McDonalds, which was terrible as expected, and sat by the window of yet another new gate. I met a girl named Emily, who was also traveling to Peru and had also been forced to check a bag she intended to carry on. We lamented together and proposed different flight plans that would eventually get us to Lima, the only problem was no matter what we would loose our bags. We both had initially been scheduled on a connecting flight to Lima from Miami around 3. At that point it would be absolutely impossible to make that flight, and the best we could hope for was a different flight at 6. The flight being 4 hours long, it was determined that the likelihood of making the later Lima flight would be greatly diminished if we didn't leave Chicago by 12:30. The new plan we thought was best would be to fly through Dallas and hope for the best with our bags.

At noon, a guy on our flight was watching the plane, and noticed the vehicle used to load and unload luggage was next to the tail of the plane. I went and looked for myself and saw the unmistakeable neon yellow backpack being unloaded. I panicked a little, I would rather get that bag back into my possession than have it be lost if this flight was cancelled, or have it be left behind. After a sharing only a small bit of what was going on, a girl working at the desk our flight was sharing with a delayed flight to Japan offered to go down onto the concourse and bring it up herself. She is also a hero of this story, and unfortunately I never learned her name. If it helps, this girl had to call security on another passenger (who was a little more irate than me) that day. American Airlines giver her kudos too!

At this point, it was almost 12:45 PM . I had been up until 4 and was faced with two options: I could go to my new gate that would take me to Dallas at 2:55 or I could go to a Dallas flight that was leaving at 1:30 and try to get onto the standby list. I chose the latter, because leaving Chicago was proving to be ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE today. & I'm so glad I tried.

Because then I met Carlos Martinez. Carlos, just a regular desk agent, told me there was no way I could get onto that flight, which wasn't the most upsetting, because I already had a seat on the later one. But he also said  that somehow my bag was checked to go to Miami, and not all the way to Peru. It would take off on that original flight, which had been delayed from 7:15 AM to 3 PM. Once in Miami, it would probably sit there until someone figured out it should try to get to me in Peru. This was a very upsetting discovery. But Carlos had my back! I had told him a little bit about my trip, and he knew I wasn't going to be able to go back to Lima and get my bag from Huari (which is an eight hour bus ride away). This human angel decided to PERSONALLY ensure my bag would make it with me all the way to Peru. He asked for a description of my bag, went and found it, and brought it up through the airport to me. He dragged my 52 pound bag up into the terminal, and through to where I was. He walked me to my new gate and said he would sit with me and the bag until it got into the hands of the agent for my new flight, who would then check it through Dallas to Lima. After a few minutes, the gate changed again, and he decided he would instead take it back to the checking area before security and set it with the rest of the bags headed to Dallas. 

As I said earlier, the thought of not having control of where my stuff is, or loosing it is panic inducing for me. But thanks to Carlos, I was able to keep it together and I'll have my stuff once I finally arrive. Without him, I would've been a lost cause without any clothes or soap. Thank you Carlos!!

My 2:55 PM flight from Chicago to Dallas was only delayed an hour on the runway (haha) and now I'm lucky enough to be sitting in the American Airlines Admirals Club, with refreshing drinks and decent snacks. It's all thanks to my Dad. Most of this is bearable thanks to him actually. Without him I'd be stuck overnight in Miami, with no chance of making it to Peru in time for my bus tomorrow night. Thanks Dad! I love you!

My flight to Lima is now an overnight one, and I'll (hopefully) be arriving around 5:30 AM, if this day so far is any indication of how the rest of my trip will go, stay tuned. 

As always,

Julia Rose

 

I took a Polaroid of Carlos, because he really made sure my trip got off to the right start.