Saturday, November 8, 2014

Killing Time in the Airport

Have you ever found yourself alone in a deserted airport in the middle of the night?   What fun awaits!!  Well, not so much 'fun' as 'boredom'.

Lloyd and I found ourselves in that situation as we attempted to leave Arizona and head back to Canada.  For some sadistic reason, our outbound flight left at 7:05am. The airline requires us to check in at least an hour before boarding, which was to begin at 6:55am.  Not so bad, unless you factor in the time it takes to get from Surprise to the airport at Mesa...1.5 hours.  That meant we had to leave home at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night!  No point in going to bed and risk not waking up in time to get to the airport on time, so a friend offered to drive us to the airport, getting us there at 7:30pm...leaving us 10 hours to kill.

A beautiful night in the Valley of the Sun.  We sat
on a bench outside the airport for awhile.

Where we would line up to check in and get rid
of our checked luggage.  It wouldn't be open for another
eight hours.  We got to watch the clean up crew mop
and wash these floors.  Fun,fun, fun!

Just so we knew where to go when the time came.
Lloyd was such a good sport to let me take his picture
of silly things.

We wheeled our luggage around like homeless people.
We usually just take a small carry-on but since we drove
down and were on the road for 6 days, we had a bit more
stuff to take with us.  We left the car in our garage so it would
be there for us to use on our next trip.

At 5:00am the only cafe in the airport finally opened
so we had breakfast before boarding the plane.
As you can probably tell, the Mesa airport is very small with not a lot to see and do, and is deserted except for the security and cleaning crew for most of the night.  It was an interesting experience to be there for so long, but not one we'd want to repeat.

Once we were in the boarding area with the rest of our fellow travellers, they announced that our flight would be boarding shortly but they were unsure of whether or not we'd get to our destination because of a snow storm that was currently in progress in the north.  Fortunately, when we landed there was just a skiff of snow on the ground, not enough to bother such intrepid travellers as us.

So we're home safe and sound with lots of pictures to remind us of our adventures.




8 comments:

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

Glad you are safely home. Those weeks in Arizona surely did go by fast.

RoeH said...

I've heard more stories about delays at that airport. Shoulda called me up. I'd have driven out and we'd have done something. Mesa kind of rolls the sidewalks up early, but there must have been something. Somewhere. In the middle of the night. :)

TARYTERRE said...

i enjoyed your story and pictorial of your long night in a deserted airport. I am not the seasoned traveler you guys are, but I have had several trips to our local airport late at night. So I understand how you felt.

BB said...

There truly is no place like home! Glad you and Ralph made it home safely. Loved the pics!! XX

Bev said...

So you fly Alligient?... our Daughter came down last year... I love going to that airport...but the downsize is the delay's...but do you REALLY want to go back to Alberta:))

doodles n daydreams said...

Oh, I don't envy you that experience at all...not even anywhere to put your head down for an hour. But Lloyd is smiling through it all, wonderful man. You'll have lots of memories of your trip, I've enjoyed being on the road with you both.

Diana

Granny Annie said...

Lloyd sure looks happy with that sandwich:-)

Mickey said...

Can't believe I didn't respond to this blog before now. I certainly read it or maybe saw some of the pics elsewhere!
That must have been a very long night! Air travel is challenging these days. Wish your bags hadn't been rifled through and had things stolen!