Day 1 of Paris 2022

So this trip was delayed last year, due to the spike in COVID and the lack of vaccines. Now, vaxxed and boosted, we decided to head to the City of Light to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Originally we had scheduled it for her 5th, but her 6th birthday would have to do. This trip would be a slight change for Lola and I as we were bringing my in-laws along for the ride. While I love them dearly, there's a clear shift in the chemistry of interactions when you add anyone to the mix. So I headed into this 10 day trip to Paris with some trepidation, but, as always, thrilled to be on the road.

Day 1 of this trip is entirely traveling, but it had some drama, so I definitely needed to include it in our log of the trip.

Our flights for this trip were scheduled to leave around 1230 from EP and arrive in Dallas for a quick hour layover before departing for Paris at 5p CT. That would put us in Paris right around 915a local time, which I had felt would set us up for success that first day. This is not how things worked out.

We met my in-laws (Mercedes and Manuel) at the airport, each family taking an Uber to save us from paying ridiculous parking fee for the 10 day vacation. The Riveras had arrived before us (as should be expected) and were in check-in when we walked up to the American Airlines counter. While we were excited, the Riveras were stressed. As we had completed the flight information, I had used the wrong passport information (basically a maiden name versus a married name) and the airline was making a big deal of it. It was a tense 20 minutes as we waited to see if she was cleared to go, but, eventually, the airline took care of the issue.

We made our way through TSA, which was a breeze as both Lola and I are members of the Trusted Traveller program. When we got to our terminal, I was less than pleased when I realized that the plane we were scheduled to fly to Dallas on was delayed in arrival by 30 minutes. This made that hour layover in DFW extremely short and I paced the concourse wishing the flight to arrive quicker. I also did something I've never did before, I went to the ticket counter and asked if they could move us closer to the front of the plane. After some searching, she said she could move my in-laws closer, and that was good enough for me.

When the plane did arrive, the crew was audibly encouraging passengers (both departing and onboarding) to hurry as the flight was delayed. I have never seen a plan loaded so fast. Super quickly, we were all aboard and strapped in and...nothing happened. We sat and sat. Finally over the intercom, the pilot told us we were dealing with a malfunctioning sensor and something was being done manually. And we sat and sat. The plane finally took off and we were headed to Dallas (with an ever diminishing layover). 

I generally don't stress during flights. I worry about connections, but generally I do that in the actual airports. But this time, I knew we were within 15 minutes between landing and takeoff and it felt impossible. I checked the next flight to Paris from DFW and discovered the next direct flight was at 5p THE NEXT DAY. So that was going to be a tough pill to swallow. I even got a (false) notification on the American app that told me our ticket had been cancelled. You can imagine the effect that had on Lola and I as we silently wished for the plane to hurry up. And when we landed and phones began to connect to networks, I got the best news so far. The flight to Paris was delayed by 30 minutes.  I've never been so thrilled to hear a flight was delayed! We were golden.


The flight was actually delayed three more times and we took off 2 hours later than planned, but once in the air to France, everything was ok for us. Except Billie was asleep between Lola and I and kicking the crap out of me as she slept. No sleep for me. Tomorrow, we land in Paris and kick off our vacation proper!

- Dan

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