Arizona or Bust

I kissed my sweetie goodbye, shed a few tears and began my journey to AZ on April 19. Here I was at the Nashville airport having arrived more than 2 hours before departure, just to be sure I was there on time for all the check-in stuff to be done. I had asked for a wheelchair on the advice of Cris who told me I would be able to get the seat that best met my needs by doing so. She was absolutely right. Not to mention how much it would save my back and feet from standing excessively in lines. So on board wheelchair with carry-on in tow, we processed everything and I was placed at the gate with nothing left to do but board. It all went so quickly I still had a wait of greater than 2 hours before leaving. Meanwhile Wayne was well on his way with the 6 hour drive ahead of him. Just as we were boarding we were given the news that our non-stop flight would have a refueling stop to make in Amarillo, TX. Wouldn't take long, sorry for the inconvenience. Yada, yada, yada. As it was, we did not arrive in Phoenix more than 30 minutes later than the original scheduled time.


I need to back up for a moment and tell you about our adventure in the Ramada.... Gone are the days of motels meeting our expectations. To make a long story short, we had to change rooms after Wayne looked at the A/C unit and found it to be caked with dust from the 20th century. That was after we discovered that the potty had problems that were unacceptable also. What you can see in the pic is layers of grime. along the entire area where the air is "filtering" thru when the unit is running.

Now back to arrival. Sofia and Alex met me at baggage claim and we quickly got luggage loaded into the Eury van. Due to the now lateness of the dinner hour, Tag had made the decision to go to a new restaurant to have dinner. It was called the Original Hamburger Works. We had a nice meal and as we proceeded to leave Tag discovered he had left his keys in the car (that had been carefully locked to protect my purse and camera). Oh, I said, I have AAA and they will come unlock for us. Naturally, my AAA card was in my purse inside the car, as was my cell phone. Luckily, Tag had his cell phone in his pocket so I put in a call to Wayne to get our AAA card number. Got it, but forgot to get the phone number to call them. Luckily, Engine 3 from the Phoenix Fire Department had just pulled up and parked across the street from us because they were coming to Hamburger Works for supper! Tag asked them if they by any chance had door unlocking equipment with them. Did they? They had an entire tool kit of various "unlockers" and a manual to look up which one to use based on the year and make of the car. They tussled around a bit and finally got the door open, Hurray! Opppps, they couldn't get their tool out of the door. It was hung up in the door works. After carefully taking the door panel loose they managed to free up their tool and we were set to go. After about 45 minutes of diligent work, we could at last get on the road to go home. Poor Bella, she had been put in her car seat as we waited for them to get their tool loose. She was very tired (hadn't had a nap) and she became very worried that they were going to break our car. Tag had to hold her to comfort her.


Yes, the Phoenix Fire Department came to our rescue. The children plan to write them a letter of thanks for their good deed (which, to them, was all in a day's work).