As the baggage goes around and around in the carousel in Orlando, I suddenly realize my bags are not on it. It took me long enough; after all, I’ve been standing here for over an hour.
Another trip, another lost bag, or should I say: “Another bag somewhere in the dark belly of the airplane. The black hole has swallowed my luggage once again. I certainly hope it’s not back in Joplin, as it has before.
Where are the luggage claim tickets where it says I gave my bags to that semi-brain dead young man at the counter in Joplin? I remember he looked at the tickets as if asking: “What is this?”, as I said to him: “I’ll go park the truck while you check the bags to Orlando. And by the way, do I show you my ID now or later? He said: “It’s OK, I know who you are, you come to this counter almost once a week.” There goes airport security.
I drove the truck out of the no-parking zone, parked it in a very conspicuous place under the parking lot lights so it could be visible in the dark; it will make it really easy for somebody to steal it. Picked up the briefcase and went back to the terminal, praying I would find the truck upon my return.
Back at the counter, the young man gave me back my tickets, my luggage tags and directed me to gate B15 once I arrived in Memphis. I felt sorry for thinking he was brain dead. This was very efficient of him.
I rushed through security, all the bells sounded, and I was stuck. Found out my high hill shoes sounded the alarm when going through the gate and I have no way to change shoes and still have two other security gates to go through. What a way to start a trip.
Once in Memphis, I looked for gate B15 and realized the gate was destined for Milwaukee not Orlando and my departure gate was B5. So the young man was definitely brain dead. Oh, well, one mistake is not too bad. After all, how many people go through his desk during a rush on Monday morning? Three, maybe four?
Arrived without delay in Orlando early enough to get to my hotel and get everything ready for the next day. No luggage.
I took a second look at my claim tickets and I see the clean handwriting of the Joplin desk clerk who wrote MKE instead of MCO; If Orlando is MCO, then MKE must be Milwaukee and my luggage is not in Orlando, but in Milwaukee.
I found the airlines baggage counter and the line was snaking out to the lobby because a man at front was complaining about a scratch on his bag. Have you seen mine? It’s scratched, ripped, dented, with wobbling wheels and it’s not even a year old.
The poor baggage counter clerk looked like she had been on the conveyor belt herself or had been run over by a plane. It was Daytona 500 week and everyone had descended upon her looking for lost baggage. I had never seen so many upset fliers in my life. I wish I had planned a trip to Florida on a different week.
After looking at her monitor for a very long time, she discovered my luggage was arriving in Milwaukee sometime later. She reaches below the counter and hands me a little tiny bag with toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, hand lotion, shampoo and conditioner along with some gum. Why the gum? I don’t know.
I have always trusted the airlines to deliver my essentials when I arrive at any given airport, but apparently it’s asking too much.
When the luggage finally arrived the next day, I discovered the bottle of shampoo I carried had spilled all over the inside of the bag. I really don’t need all this extra work just before the planned meetings. What to do but grin and bear it. Removed all the shampoo from the other toiletries, washed the bag and everything once again with hopes to have enough shampoo for the entire trip; if not, I'll have to rely on the little bitty shampoo bottles on the counter, which are never enough to do a thorough cleaning of my hair, never mind the conditioner which takes forever to drip drop on my hand.
Tomorrow is another day and another trip and perhaps the luggage will catch up with me this time.
After my arrival in Joplin, discovered the spare tire from underneath the truck had been stolen! Now I have more work to do, while looking for another spare, another lock to make sure it doesn't happen again and another trip to plan.