Lansers on the Loose ...

We were excited to be up and on our way home yesterday morning. We were hoping for an easy-peasy trip home ... so ... our fingers were crossed that no aviation mountains would be on our horizon. However, it appeared that the Universe wanted to give me more practice in being a gracious mountain climber!! 🥴

We pre-ordered our Cabify because we didn't want any unexpected delays getting to the airport. And, we wanted to be sure to arrive three hours early. As we watched "Shirley" trying to navigate her way to our hotel pick-up spot, we got a bit concerned. She finally arrived, but was a bit late. Her driving was questionable at best ... and ... very distracted. She was checking her messages and farting around with the GPS. I started to suspect she might be new, because she did not inspire the least bit of confidence that we were headed in the right direction.

We had checked on 'the Google' to see if there was more than one airport in Barcelona. We learned that there is only one airport ... but ... two different terminals - one international and one domestic. They are about 20-30 minutes apart though.

As we passed the terminal for the domestic, I got a knot in my stomach. I was second-guessing whether we should be going to Terminal 2. I had no idea why, though, because clearly we were flying International ... so ... I chalked it up to my overly anxious mind and the anxiety provoking driving of Miss "Shirley".

When we arrived at the airport, she asked what airline. I said "WestJet". I could tell by the quizzical look on her face that she had no idea what I was talking about. We headed straight to the departures board to see if our flight was 'on time'. Well.... there was no flight to Calgary via WestJet listed on the board. 😲

The knot in my stomach tightened. Thank goodness the old boy suggested we go to information, because now, we were only 2.5 hours early. The lady at information initially shook her head. No. No departures for WestJet. Air Canada, yes. WestJet no.

I showed her our boarding passes. She got on her computer and scrolled for far too long. Finally, I saw a slight nod on her face. I relaxed for a quick moment until she told us we were at the wrong terminal.

I could read the tension in her face as she instructed us on how to get to Terminal 2. She gave me a little note with specific instructions. We needed to take the shuttle from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. It was the fastest way to get there but would take us 20 minutes at least. The instructions to find the green "2B" shuttle were complicated, but I was trying to keep it all straight despite my panic.

She reminded us that once we got to Terminal 2"B" ... not "A or C" we would need to go to B34 - 50 to check our bag. I think I mentioned that we decided it would be easy to expand one of our carry-ons and check it for the flight home. We had picked up a small sport bag to make things a little easier because we also had our Inez tortas and some teas etc to bring home as well. That way we did not have to be as condensed and all our liquids and tree ornaments could go home in the checked bag.

After we got our bag checked, we would need to go through security and then through customs and then find our gate. Oh, and by the way, WestJet was closing the gate at 1:00pm and boarding at 1:25pm (a full hour before take-off!). But don't panic ... just hurry she said.

We found our way to the last two escalators taking us down to the green 2B shuttle. We could see it was already almost full and were afraid it would take off before we got down the escalator. The old boy started running ... his 30lb backpack bouncing up and down on his back! His ball team would have been proud of his determination to get there! We had no idea how often the shuttles run, but we didn't want to miss if for fear of losing another half hour! I could not bear the thought of missing our flight home. I had no idea when the next flight to Calgary would be!!

It was standing room only in the bus, but the good news is that we squeezed ourselves into the back door before it closed around us. I could feel it tugging me in circles as the door wrapped around me to shut. I'm sure the other passengers were not impressed with us tightly pushing them into each other.

We are assuming this was a shuttle for passengers who landed in Terminal I but had connecting to flights out of Terminal 2. I say that because the bus dropped us right in front of security. We could not see anywhere to drop our checked bag so we just went through the security ... with a bag loaded with all things that belong in checked baggage.

Eeeegads. How do we get ourselves into such pickles??? The hold boy and I got separated in the lines so I had no idea how it was going to fall out, but I expected we'd lose all our larger items (a large hair spray that I purchased and a big bottle of sun screen etc). I could not have been more surprised to learn that the only thing they confiscated from all the contraband items was the large aerosol hairspray. Everything else made it through!!

We were tickled to have ascended that mountain. Our next climb was going to be how to get the 'should have been' checked bag which was expanded and did not match carry on requirements onto the plane ... along with my carry-on bag AND the extra sports bag. This made for three carry-ons instead of limit of two that were allowed.

The old boy was going to go to the counter and explain our predicament, but my gut feel was to just wait and see what happened. If they called us out, then we would deal with it. Guess what happened??????

Nothing. We boarded the plane with our oversized 'should have been checked' bag filled with all kinds of things and my carryon and the extra sports bag and our two backpacks and my purse. No one said a thing.

It is absolutely unpredictable how things will go ... because ... when we came back from Cabo in January, WestJet made me check my carryon because it was too fat. And, now ... all was well.

So, in the final analysis ... loads of stress ... not easy-peasy at all BUT ... we climbed every mountain and forded every stream ... as we ... followed every rainbow making our way to our dream of a month in Spain. Can you kind of hear Julie Andrews singing that? 😉

We landed in Calgary and headed to the hotel. We wanted to stay awake all the way home because we wanted to be able to sleep when we arrived at 5pm MDT which was actually 3am Spanish time. I had the most amazing sleep from 7pm last night to 6:30am this morning. I think my nervous system finally relaxed completely and I slept incredibly well.

All that was left to do was get into our car and come home. And folks, that is what we did!! And, can I share how wonderful it feels to be typing this from the comfort of my own home. It is always so wonderful to take a trip and even more wonderful to be home in familiar surroundings especially when we have been away for so long. We have confirmed that one month is just too long to be away for us at this stage of our lives.

Thank you all for joining us along the way. It was so nice to get your responses ... making us feel a bit more connected to our people!! We will be ordering our book so that all these memories will be bound up in a way that we can revisit them as we get even older!

Our hearts are filled with so many good memories, and now, we can begin to get ready for summer here at home. I've got a good start on my sun tan already! Let's hope it warms up a bit!! It's still pretty chilly here. The Rockies looked lovely with their caps of snow and it was so green on our drive home!

With happy hearts, k&j ❤️Read more