Are we on Amazing Race? (Tom)

 Hi all!

I'm dusting off the blog, as we are heading back to Ethiopia with Daniel and Tamenech so they can meet their birth families. It's been a trip many months in the making, with lots of planning and coordinating. Hard to believe that it's finally here.

As we start our journey, two incidents have happened that have made me feel that we're on the Amazing Race, as unexpected events have made our trip a tad bit more "interesting" and challenging.

Our first challenge occurred last Saturday. Somehow, along the way, Lori's itinerary got separated from the rest of ours. When I printed out our flight plans, I wanted to compare the two to make sure that we were all on the same flights. It's lucky I checked as Lori's itinerary did not include the legs from Dulles airport to Addis Ababa or the first leg of the return trip from Addis Ababa to Frankfurt Germany. I then proceeded to spend 3.5 hours with various United personnel trying to get Lori back on our trip. The first person said I needed to call Ethiopian Airlines as it was the flights on that airline that were missing. Ethiopian Airlines told me that they couldn't do anything since the flights were booked through United. Then, a United rep told us that there were no more seats on the flight from Addis to Frankfurt and would Lori be willing to take a different flight a day later? Then, would all of us be willing to take a flight a d.ay later? Then, finally an alternative flight that would have been perfect, albeit leaving Memphis at a different time but would have been less travel time overall.

Great! I said, let's book it. Okay, she said. Please hold. (I was 2.5 hours into getting this worked out by this point.)

Twenty minutes later, someone else came on the line, acting as if no help had yet been given. I explained (again) what was going on, and the flights that had been given to us by the previous rep. The new rep told me that he could change the itinerary, but there would be a change fee plus the difference in the flight. I explained, as patiently as I could, that I should not have to pay any fees as I wasn't the one who dropped Lori's flights. "Please hold."

Rep came back on and repeated that the Addis to Frankfurt flight was full and they couldn't get Lori on that flight. Would we be interested in flying through Dubai on the way home? We would have to leave late the next day. As this would create all kinds of logistical issues with hotels and drivers and guides, I told the rep t hat this wouldn't work, and repeated that the four of us needed to be on the same flight.

"Please hold."

 Twenty minutes later...."I have a solution, but we will have to rebook your entire itinerary."

"Fine, as long as we're all on the same flights and leaving at about the same time."

"I can get you on a flight from Addis Ababa to Frankfurt to Chicago to Memphis. Will that work?"

So just a note here, the flight that he'd just proposed was the one I'd asked about at the beginning of the call (three and a half hours ago) that was supposedly full from Addis to Frankfurt. Whether something changed during that time, I don't know, but the flight was booked and crisis averted.

I'll just say that I'm really glad I checked the itinerary again on Saturday rather than finding out Wednesday during check-in that Lori wasn't on our flight...

The second challenge arose when we got to Dulles airport on Tuesday night. The plan was to spend the night in DC so we could be on the flight to Addis first thing Wednesday morning. The four of us had four fifty-pound bags (mostly donations of clothes, shoes, etc) plus our carry on bags. It was a lot, such that we had to take two cars to the Memphis airport. When we checked into Memphis, we were told our bags would be checked all the way to Addis. However, I noted the tags they gave me only had the bags checked through to DC. I couldn't fathom how we were going to get all those bags onto a hotel shuttle when we got to DC.

 The gate agent told me to just not pick up our bags in DC and that the lost baggage counter would have them the next morning for us to pick up. Brilliant idea, but both Lori and I were not comfortable that our bags would be there the next morning.

Upon arrival at Dulles, we went to the counter and asked if this would work. The words of the manager were "Absolutely not!" So we had to gather our eight fifty-pound and eight carry on bags and pull them to the curb so I could call the hotel and make sure they sent a shuttle that could accommodate all of our bags.

Once at the curb, I called the hotel to send a shuttle. (It's about 10:15pm at this point."

The front desk attendant nicely told us that the shuttle stops running at 10pm. (Note that a) I chose this hotel in part because there was a shuttle, and b) there was no indication on their web site that the shuttle stopped running at 10pm).

So I went into panic mode, calling about half a dozen hotels whose shuttles we saw driving by. All hotels were full. Lori had the idea for one of us to take the kids to the hotel and the other of us would stay with the bags in the airport for the night. Not an ideal situation, but maybe a plan "B".

I was worried about calling an Uber because there didn't seem to be any way to indicate the size of the car you needed. Finally I went searching for taxis to see if there were any large enough to accommodate everything. A very nice taxi attendant called for a minivan, which got most everything in. Then he called a second van to hold the rest of us.

We made it!

Just like an episode of Amazing Race, without dramatic music or Phil and a red carpet at the end.

Let's hope the rest of our trip is much smoother!