Trip to The West

We planned our trip to Utah in a unique way this summer.  The lowest costs flights were through Allegiant Air.  We scored non-stop flights directly from Fort Wayne to Mesa, Arizona using Allegiant. This way we could see Nick & Carissa in Mesa for part of our trip.  We would rent a van and attempt to drive to Salt Lake, stopping in St. George on the way, a total of 10-11 hours.  Since we recently did a 12 hour drive to Florida, we figured we could handle this.  The last 3 days of our trip we would stay in Mesa before flying home to Fort Wayne.  

As we got to the airport on Wednesday to head to Mesa, everyone was excited.  Dawson especially was so excited to ride on a real airplane!  The flight was supposed to leave around 2:30pm.  Unfortunately it got delayed.  They told us that the plane had mechanical problems.  About an hour later, they told us the plane was not going to be able to fly that day at all.   But there was a plane that may be coming from Las Vegas and that they'd let us know.  Well, several hours later, they confirmed that the Las Vegas plane would come to Fort Wayne to take us to Mesa.  But it had not left yet.  They delayed the flight till 7:50pm.  We rented a car for $25 for an hour and went to the nearby mall to eat dinner and pass the time.  When we got back, we got airport dinner vouchers and ice cream.  By 7:30, they delayed the flight again till 9:30.  The airline bought pizza for everyone.  So we just hung around.  After 9pm, they delayed again till 10:45 or so.  At 10 it got delayed till 11:25.  The last we heard, the delay was going to be until 1:30am.  At that point it was after 11pm, really late, and we got jammies on the kids and found the cleanest place in the airport to get the kids to try to sleep.  Then, just after we got settled, they CANCELLED the flight.  It got rescheduled for the following afternoon.  So we spent about 11 hours in the airport in Fort Wayne!!  

We had gotten dropped off, so by the time it would be to have someone come get us and take us home, we'd have had to turn around and drive back to the airport because each time they delayed, it was only a couple hours.  We got to know the people on our flight really well.  We felt like the show "Lost" where we got to know everyone around us really well since we all were in the same boat.  One kind lady made sure we got 2 large whole pizzas reserved for our big family, and she brought us sodas too.  Other people who were discouraged and frustrated with the airline, looked at us and commented, realizing that their situation could be worse if they had 5 kids hanging out in the airport like we did.  It was a frustrating experience for all.  But the kids were such angels, that it made such a difference.  The kids were troopers.  They dealt with the delays like champs.  Not much complaining, they were cooperating, they were patient.  Even little Dawson waited and waited and waited to get on that airplane.  He would watch other planes out the airport windows and wait for his plane.  After all that waiting, we ended up just going home!! If he was disappointed, he didn't show it, and we got on our airplane the following afternoon.  And he was sure proud at that.  In Mesa, we got off the plane outside, which was even more of an experience than getting off and walking in a tunnel.  That was exciting for all the kids, especially Dawson.