And the FUN Begins !

Yen Says goodbye to all her new friends and
neighbors in Washington State

9:30 Monday night, I receive a phone call and my ride to the airport has to cancel on me.  Oh, my gosh.  This is not good, as I am traveling with Yen. It is too late to start making phone calls to try and get an early morning ride, so I call good 'ol Shuttle Express.   They tell me that they would have to send a private van because I have a dog crate.  What!!!?   I have used Shuttle Express a number of times and never had a problem.  The private van would cost $125.00.  So....I explore other options.

Only other option is to drive myself to the airport and park in long term parking.  At such a late notice, Embassy Suites, where I usually park is not taking more reservations, so it is AJax Parking.

Morning comes far too early and Yen and I are on the road heading for AJax Parking.  Traffic is great....afterall, it is 5am.   We arrive at AJax and their airport shuttle actually follows me to my parking spot. We load up my luggage and crate and Yen takes a quick pee (thank you Yen!)  Then we are on the way to the airport.

Unfortunately due to 9/11, the shuttle can't drop me off at the curb outside of departures.   Instead I am dropped off at Ground Transportation.  UGH !   Hmmm....how to get crate, dog, two roller bags and me to check in.  I end up dragging the crate with one suitcase on top, and the other wheeled bag.   Yen ends up dragging me.   We are quite the sight !

We make it to the line of carts and I slide my card, paying $5.00.   I am instructed to "remove cart".   Cart won't remove, so I do it again.  Same result.  Now what?   I look down the parking garage and see another skybridge, elevator and row of carts.  So...here we go again.  We make it to the carts and I again slide my card and thankfully, this time I get a cart (a now $15.00 cart).

I load Yen into the cart and place the bags on top of the crate and away we go, heading for check in.  I was instructed that the cut off time for getting Yen on the flight was one hour before departure time.  We were still looking good.  After waiting in the wrong line for a while I was instructed to go to what seemed the longest line in the airport.  After a half hour in line(with it moving very little) I started getting really concerned.  I talked with an agent and she said that she would try and get the line moving.   After another 15 minutes I am getting rather panicked.  She returns and brings me to a "special" line (one for panicked fliers) and I get right up to the agent.

The woman who was taking Yen's papers takes one look at my brand new crate and says that Yen can't fly in that.  I look at her in disbelief.  The crate still has her flight papers on it from her May flight on Alaska Airlines.  I show her that she flew in the crate and she said "sorry, it has the wrong kind of fasteners.  She sent me out to the Sky Caps and I buy 4 bolts and the Sky Cap sends me back inside and tells me that he ll be right in with the bolts.  

All I can think of is PLEASE HURRY.   I think that he knew it was getting serious here.   He came in and met me at TSA and he put the bolts on the crate.  Then TSA did their thing.  I gave Yen a Big hug and she gave me kisses.  I left hoping that she would make it on the plane. Thankfully I had "PreCheck" and I breezed through security.  I took the train and headed to N Gates.  By the time I got to my gate, the plane was boarding.  Whew !  I made it.

I think that dog owners at times are worse than parents.   I made a point of letting each of the flight attendants know that I had a dog who was supposed to be on the flight.  No way that door was going to close with out Yen on the plane.

As I was waiting (patiently?) in my seat, the flight attendant came and brought me my card that said that Yen was safely on board. Big smiles...and a sigh of relief.  I love Alaska Airlines and they are the best for flying a dog.  

It's OK Alaska Airlines...Name is STEVES.
People add an "N" to my name all the time.

We were ready for take off and all were instructed to turn off all electronics.  Then the pilot came over the radio and said that we would be delayed due to a maintenance issue.  I just chuckle...it is only 8 AM and I have had quite the morning.  My day was going to be a long one.  With a 9 hour layover in Juneau, my arrival in Anchorage at 8pm meant that my ETA to home was 10:15.