It wouldn't be a vacation without kaos 2 with heros!

My mother made the travel arrangements so that we would all come in at the same time and all depart around the same time. A 10:15 am departure time is not terrible, the airport is 2 hours away, the flight only 3 hours, not a long day. Only one problem. Moms ticket was for 10:15 am. Ours were for 10:15 PM. Night time! When we figured this slight issue out I called the airlines to straighten it out. Wouldn't they want their customers to be happy travelers? I thought that if I were nice, pleasant, and explained the story to the ticketing agent over the phone that we would simply change our times and be done with it. I know, what was I thinking? Sure they would change our flight times, but I would have to pay the price difference of the tickets and a $50.00 fee, to a total of $378.00 PER TICKET. So not doing THAT! The agent then told me I could call 24 hours before the flight and get on confirmed stand by. There were 3 earlier flights, so we were sure to get on one of them. 23 hours and 56 minutes before the flight I called. The ticket agent refused to put us on stand by because it was not 24 hours before the flight. I asked a her if I could just keep her on the phone 4 more minutes and she said no. Click. I called right back and was told that we could change our tickets but it would be $270 per ticket plus the $50 handling fee per ticket. I really don't get this 'additional' $50 scam when they are already gouging you just to change the time on a ticket. This ticket agent told me that I had a better chance going to the airport and changing the tickets there for $50 a pop. I was concerned that we could possibly be at the airport for 12 hours, but thought things always work out and we will catch an early flight. You see where this is going? At the airport we were shut down 3 times. The gate keepers informed me that ALL flights to California were over sold and that they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats for a $350 travel voucher. I broke the news to the guys that we were going to be at the airport until 10:15 PM. Lucky for me the guys are very good at self entertaining. They shopped, Rex exchanged a little of his cash for Russian money and got a massage, rode the cool tram through the amazing city that is the Dallas airport, and watched new movies that we bought the night before 'just in case'. The thing about being stuck at the Dallas airport is that it really isn't that bad. There are plenty of decent restaurants to choose from, free easy transportation between terminals if you get bored, and Samsung has created quiet work rooms with large leather chairs that were the perfect size for Fox to curl up and sleep for 3 hours. Rex had a blast riding the tram and exploring, and I just read, watched a movie, and took a cat nap. We were all in this together and accepted our situation, there are worse ways to spend a day.

10 o'clock arrived and we were beyond excited to get on the plane. Rex was anxious because he did not like flying on a MD-80, remember he is an airplane buff. He wanted to know how many miles were on the aircraft before he would fly. Rex got up to the front of the line so he could get into the cockpit and brief the pilots, he has always done this since he could talk, and the pilots are always happy to engage him. As Fox and I were approaching the ticket agent, she insisted that we give her our bags so that they could put them under the plane. The flight was over booked and the overhead bins were full. Not wanting to be a problem traveler, we relinquished our bags to this woman who seemed overly concerned about bags. The woman behind me did not want to give up her bag, so I offered to grab Rex's bag so she could keep her bag. I am cool like that. We got up to the plane and sure enough Rex was chatting with the pilots. The flight attendant was entertained by him and I told her I was going to give this overly concerned bag lady his bag. No problem. Fox and I settled into our seats and Rex walked up the isle. BIG PROBLEM.

*I did ask Rex if I could write about the rest of this story. He said yes and has approved what I am about to tell you.

As Rex was walking I noticed he had a very upset look on his face. When he got to me he started to cry. I had given the bag lady his bag and his blanket was in his bag. My world stopped. Fox's world stopped. Holy cow what have I done? Rex has a blanket that relaxes him. He has slept with a special blanket since he was a few months old. We have replaced his blanket several times because it had become thread bare, and on our last trip to visit Grandma he realized he forgot it, called her from the road, and when we arrived at her house she had made him a new blanket. This blanket is key to keeping Rex happy and calm. I ran up to the front of the plane and asked the flight attendant if his bag was taken yet. Indeed it had. SHIT. I explained to her the importance of this blanket, that my son has an autism spectrum issue (usually called a disorder, but I don't like that word because there is nothing WRONG with any autistic person) and he needs the blanket. This amazing flight attendant went into problem solving mode. Another attendant came forward and asked what she could do now to keep him calm because he was panicking in the back of the plane. The two flight attendants went to the pilot and explained the situation. While they were talking to the pilot another flight attendant informed me that we may have to leave the plane and take a later flight if we could not get Rex to calm down. She was not on my team. I told her as long as we got his blanket back we would be happy to get off the plane. My superhero team came back and told me that the pilot would not leave until Rex had his blanket. The crazed bag lady then yelled at me that she would not go get his blanket, and that if it was so important then I should have remembered to get it out of the suitcase. Really? The pilot then looked at her and said, we won't leave until he has his blanket, and went down into the suitcase abyss and found a young man's special blanket so he could fly in peace. When the pilot came back with the blanket, my team of flight attendants high fived each other. A small group of hero's who did something so important for my family made our long day not so terrible after all.