#SILintheSouth the Traveling Nightmare

What. A. Nightmare. That's kind of how we can sum up the last couple of days.... but let me tell you about it

The first flight; 

It started on Monday morning at 5am. Our alarm didn't go off and luckily I was half awake and heard Chanel awake and quickly sprung out of bed to get ready. Even though we were up way later than we wanted to be, we still made it to the airport on time and checked in for our flight. 

We were all checked in, breakfast was eaten and we were sitting on the plane only to be told we weren't leaving yet. Our first flight was to Los Angeles, due to arrive at 6am local time so we could catch a connecting flight to Dallas but time was ticking away. 

We were squished next to a guy that snored louder than the plane's engine, in front of a kid who decided to kick the back of our chair and constantly poke the screen and behind a woman who thought the reclining chairs deserved to be treated like a yoyo and a lady who wanted to read for 13 hours with the light on. 

Jesse and I switched seats throughout the flight to try and get some sleep (it was easiest to sleep against the window away from Mr Snore-a-saurus) and we managed to get about an hour or two of broken sleep each.

Heading to Dallas; 

We arrived in Dallas 13 hours later and were given an express connection ticket to get us through the airport faster to make our flight but unfortunately we still had to wait an hour for our bags and then had to race out of the airport, up the street to the domestic terminal and then through security and the airport to get to our gate - but we made the flight on time!

It was then onto Dallas on a 3 and a bit hour flight. We managed to get a tiny bit of sleep each but we were absolutely exhausted and not sure how we were going to make it til 6pm without sleep... If only we knew what was ahead of us! Ha!

Dallas Dramas

So we arrived in Dallas, rode the Skylink to the next terminal, found our gate and sat down only to be told they'd changed the gate and it was now in a whole other terminal.

So back on the Skylink it was to the next gate where we sat for an hour waiting for our flight. At this stage we were exhausted. I quickly ate a LEDA Bar out of my purse as I hadn't eaten anything since we'd gotten off our flight to LA (seriously, LEDA bars are the best thing ever and I am SO glad I brought some in my handbag or I would have eaten my own arm)

Before we knew it, we were onboard our flight.... but we weren't going anywhere... The "service door" of the plane was broken which also served as the emergency exit. 

So we were taken off the plane whilst they attempted to fix the problem or get a new plane. We were onto hour 26 of traveling and we'd pretty much had enough but we waited because we had no choice. 

An hour later, we were told we had to move to yet another gate to our new plane to fly out to Alexandria. Our final plane ride and we were there. They promised our luggage was going to be moved onto the new plane so we headed to our new gate and waited some more. 

The flight to Alexandria takes just under an hour and we were so exhausted that we slept almost the entire way. We woke up groggy and exhausted (that drives me nuts!) and couldn't wait to get to Jesse's Mom's house to sleep

All that was left to do was wait for our bags..... and wait..... and wait...... and wait. 

Jesse's carry on bag arrived okay but our checked luggage was no where to be seen. We'd arrived at 7:30pm and at 9:30pm I'd finally hunted down someone in the airport to look into where our luggage was (as there is never anyone at that airport to help you!). He told us our luggage would be coming in on the flight coming in at 10pm as they'd forgotten to put it onto our new plane in Dallas so we decided to get some food and come back. 

So we headed to Kroger to grab some groceries and food for me to eat and I devoured baby carrots, string cheese, hummus and yogurt in the parking lot. Food seriously tastes so much better when you're starving, haha. I'd eaten only a LEDA bar and some almonds the entire day. 

We headed back to the airport at 10pm and waited for an hour to find someone to help us. When we did eventually find someone, we found that only one of our bags had arrived and our bag that was filled with both of our clothes was still in Dallas. 

We were onto our 30 something-th hour of traveling and we were ridiculously exhausted. We had no clothes to wear and just wanted to change into something clean and fresh so we headed to Walmart to get some pj's and clothes for the next day. 

At 1am we finally arrived at Jesse's Mom's house and we hurriedly packed away groceries and showered before falling into bed. 

Before I knew it, it was 6am and I was groggily waking up, wondering why our room was so light when the lights were off (durrr Fred, it's called sunlight). 

All four of our nieces are staying at Jesse's Mom's house at the moment (as well as Jesse's brother and us) so we got up and played with them while we waited for our bags to arrive.

The airport was supposed to call us when our bags came in but, surprise surprise, no phone call! We tried calling the airport but no one picked up so we decided to just head out there and see if the bag was there yet.

I got changed into my $14.88 walmart dress and we headed off to the airport.

And there we waited some more for somebody to come and help us. At this time, I was praying my little heart out that our bags were there. A man finally came out to see what we needed and gave me a hopeless look when I told him we were waiting on delayed luggage. 

"Ma'am, I'm not sure but I will go and check"

But it was there!!!! And I definitely learnt my lesson to always always always pack clothes in your carry on bag (I was more worried about food... lol). 

And so we hit the road to run some errands and drop Jesse's brother and friend into town - and that, my friends, is town a' la Alexandria. Definitely not like Sydney. 

Jesse and I headed to Walmart once again to buy his Mom some frying pans as she didn't have any (as we found out whilst making breakfast this morning). Walmart was totally overwhelming last night as I'd been awake for 30 something hours but this morning whilst still totally exhausted and running on 5 hrs of sleep we decided to go on a mission trip and just get the frying pans and get out of there as quickly as possible. 

Plus, being tired puts me at risk of impulse buying... I just want to buy ALL THE NUT BUTTERSSSSS even though I know I don't need them :P 

This is one of "my houses" in Louisiana - aka: the houses I would happily live in as they're cute and Southern and Kristy-like. Not too long ago this house was up for sale at a ridiculously low price (compared to Australia's 1+ million dollar homes) and we joked about buying it but there's no way we could live in Louisiana.

And because I know a lot of you are interested, I snapped a few pics through the window whilst we were driving today so you can get a little bit of an idea what it's like where we are in the world! 

Jesse's Mom lives in an area that's full of plant nurseries, hence all of the crops and plants! 

This afternoon, however, I decided I was tired of being stuck indoors (being an outdoorsy person at home) and went outside with the boys whilst they threw around a football but that was a total mistake. Even though I smothered myself in bug spray and had a bug repellent band on my foot, I ended up having my feet eaten alive by some kind of bug which made my feet red and swollen and itchy (if you've ever been bitten by a fire ant, it felt pretty similar to that)

So now I'm here, lying in bed with the laptop on my lap and a coffee in my hand, writing to you and listening to our nieces argue with each other about which Barbie doll gets to wear which jammies and laughing at Jesse's monkey onesie. Girl does not leave Australia without her coffee and teabags (or travel mug!) - what would I do without caffeine. 

But tell me, how have you been lately?

What's one thing you can never leave home without bringing when you're traveling?