Traveling Back Home…

You might read the title of this blog and begin to believe this blog is about sports or even an intense chase I was in. But, it really is just about the sprint from our plane that landed late in Miami to the one transporting us to Haiti.

The story is that we were initially supposed to be arriving in Miami at 2:44 PM. But, the flight continued to get delayed and we didn’t arrive until 3:29 PM. Now, this usually wouldn’t have been a problem for us as we would have some time to kill in the airport before our next flight. Unfortunately, this was not the case; our next plane boarded at 3:05 PM.

We were still on our first plane at 3:29 PM. This long process of parking and everyone getting off of the plane left us with fifteen minutes to get to our plane that left at 3:50 PM. Our seven-person group questioned whether we were actually going to run to catch our flight. We thought it would be funny. The serious reality came when we discovered that our eighth team member, who had been traveling from Colorado, had already boarded the plane. We thought they might not let her off. We decided our best option was to all run to catch our flight. Yes, this was indeed the epic Home Alone 2 airport running scene I have always dreamt of doing.

We rushed out of the plane and began to run. It wasn’t long before the people around questioned what we were doing, as one of our teammates thought it would be quicker to duck and ran under the ropes that were set up to keep people coming out of the plane in an orderly fashion. It would have been a grand idea, but unfortunately for my teammate, her backpack got caught on the rope, almost tearing all the ropes down. We all laughed at what happened and knew this was going to be a hilarious adventure to our next plane.

You would think that it would be a usual thing for people having to run through the airport to catch a flight. From the looks we were receiving, it did not seem to be the case. We continued to run despite our audience’s reactions. As we were running, Steph pointed out the fact that we had to take a train to get to gate D, as we were currently in gate E. We finished our run to the train and realized we only had six people, and that the seventh person was still recovering their passport that was left on the plane. We heard the train approaching and still no teammate. Just before the doors of the train opened, our seventh member came running around the corner, making it just in time.

We got off the train and began our run again. We had seven minutes before our plane left. Honestly, with the speed we were all jogging, we were not all going to make it there before 3:50 PM. So, we decided that one of us sprinting ahead would be more beneficial to the group as a whole, so that the sprinter could talk to the person at the gate about holding the flight for us. With that decision, one of our teammates pulled ahead and began to sprint (it was sprinting compared to the average speed that someone moves in an airport). To having the relief of one person ahead of the rest, some began to walk instead of run. Many were beginning to grow tired as we were having to not only run, but carry our bags and carry-ons as well.

Once we all picked up the speed and caught back up to the sprinter at the gate, we heard that our teammate had been stalling the gate worker, hoping we would catch up to get on the flight with her. Luckily, our sprinter’s efforts and all of us getting there at the right time allowed for the gate worker to graciously re-open the gate to the plane, which does not happen as easily as it did for Kevin in Home Alone 2.

Finally, we boarded the plane at 3:49 PM. Sweating and laughing uncontrollably at what had just happened, I looked at all of my teammates, which I had barely seen for the last month, and thought to myself, “Man, how I have missed the memories that are created when I am with these people, including this sprint to make our flight home, to Haiti.”