Don't ask me to pick you up at the airport

I've had two visitors arrive and stay for about a week this month; my cousin Lori and my oldest daughter, Bonnet. I was responsible for picking them both up at the airport.

Lori
After sending me the itinerary for her flight 3-weeks before her visit, I never heard from Lori again. She posted a few days later saying she'd had a very difficult time getting the days off. Then nothing. No emails. No other posts. No activity on Messenger.

Oddly, we had never exchanged phone numbers so I had no way to contact her. I kept sending emails asking if she was still coming. No response. I finally sent one saying that I'd meet her at the luggage carousel. No response.

I pretty much decided that she was not coming and was to heart broken to contact me.

Regardless, I showed up at the airport a quarter hour early with Will in tow. You can imagine how much fun hanging around in an airport with an active 5-year old boy can be. When we got there all the seats were taken so we sit next to a column and faced the luggage area. We sit there for half an hour. No Lori. We sit in some seats. Luggage came and luggage went. No Lori. At an hour, I had her paiged. No Lori. At an hour and fifteen minutes, a full hour after she should have arrived, we left.

At this point we are late to a birthday party Will was suppose to attend and in the middle of Friday evening rush hour. Oh, joy.

When we get home there is phone message from a pissed sounding Lori saying, "I'm sitting in a hotel in Austin. Where the hell are you?"

She didn't bring luggage, so never went to the luggage area. Her computer crashed weeks ago and she knew that I probably had been trying to contact her and was convinced she was not coming. She stood around the info desk 5-10 minutes and then took a taxi to the hotel ($45 ride).

Bonnet
Bonnet was suppose to arrive in Austin on Tuesday night; 10:30. I get a call from her at 8:45 saying that after a 3 hour drive in blizzard conditions to the airport in Grand Junction her flight was cancelled indefinitely. Her options were to come back the following day - which involved driving in pitch dark during a worsening storm - or stay in case a flight could be made out. She elected to stay.

She called around 11:00 that night to let me know she made it to Denver but missed her connection. No flights were available out until the following morning. So her little pregnant self had to sleep under a desk draped in clothing to shelter her. Nothing was open to serve food. She was to fly out at 8:00 the next morning and would be in Austin at 10:30. She gave me the 800 number to check the flight for updates.

Tori drives over to the house to go with me to pick Tori up. Right before Tori's arrival, I try the number to find out Bonnet's flight has been delayed an hour. So we decide to go ahead and drive that direction, just stop and check out some shops on the way. An hour later we call the 800 number to find the flight has been set back another hour.

We mess around and finally head to the airport. Early, but we don't have any where else to go and there isn't time to go home.

We park and go in to find her flight has been moved back again. She is now arriving at 1:00. We skipped breakfast and planned on eating an early lunch with Bonnet . . . so none of us had anything to eat. We're starving, bored, and just about crazy from dealing with Will.

That's it. She arrived. We had a great visit. She left -- and made it home without incident. It just makes me a little leery about picking up any more guests.

Steve's brother, Dave, and his family arrived in San Antonio tonight for a visit and I made Steve go get them. Oddly, they arrived in time and found him immediately.

It must just be me. So for your own good, and mine, please don't ask me to pick you up at the airport.