The Flight #2

 I can't say that the flight getting here was my favorite thing, in fact, it was rather miserable. I thought about not even including it here, but after a week, Eric and I can look back at it and find the humor in it. Please do that as you read and don't think I am always a complainer!

American Airlines is a partner with Qatar Airlines. Eric kept telling me to pay for an upgraded seat if it was available. I kept thinking "why didn't he just buy a better seat?" Well, let me tell you, what he thought he was booking, was not what I got! He thought he had booked American Airlines the whole way. They have three levels. He thought he had booked the middle one to give me a bigger seat and more leg room. I started in Denver on American Airlines and of course I took his offer! That put me in first class in the front row! I had never flown first class before! Nice big space, unlimited snacks and drinks! I can't say I took advantage of the refreshments, but that nice big space was wonderful and I enjoyed a nap! Good thing, because things went south really fast after that! I arrived in Dallas. I had 50 minutes to get to the other gate. I had to take a train, but luckily found it with no mishaps. I get there and hear my name being called. I'm optimistic and think "oh, Eric called ahead and got me an upgrade!" No! They were only demanding that I check my carry on. I didn't want to do this because it had my small sewing machine in it and I was afraid it would get broken. I also attach my personal item to it because it is too heavy to carry. I'm nothing if I'm not obedient, so off went my carry on and it was time for me to board. I had hoped to have time to use the restroom and grab a snack. No such luck! I was off to 36B or what I like to refer to as my seat of doom for the next 14 hours! Of course it's a middle seat. A 30ish aged man was by the window. He looked pretty harmless and was! I took my seat and soon a cute Indian woman about my age sat in the aisle seat. She was very friendly and I prayed she didn't want to chat for the entire flight! She had no clue how to buckle her seatbelt. Not how she has flown before. I got her buckled and it was time for take off. We are up in the air and immediately I realize there is a small child behind me with constant kicking. Soon I realize it is another child in front of me constantly rattling my tray table. You all know me and I dearly love children, but not at that moment!

The food was not delicious, but edible enough to not starve. Sure wish I would have had time to buy a Snickers!

After dinner, my new friend, Sudha, wanted to talk. I found out that her son and daughter in law are both engineers and live in Minnesota. Her son has a doctorate from University of Oklahoma. That is who she had been visiting. She believes in Christ and loves to pray to him. She also has diabetes. She got up, so I was super thankful to walk around for a few minutes. She came back to our seats and I got her buckled again.🤣 I wasn't feeling like more conversation. Luckily, she put her blanket over her head and went to sleep. I tried desperately to get comfy enough to sleep, but it just wasn't happening. I watched movies and listened to music instead. Often, I would check the map on the seat back. It felt like we would never get to our destination. The good part was that the small children were asleep, so my seat wasn't shaking!

That's why Eric loves the Middle East so much. There is a town called Batman!

I have to say it is a bit nerve wracking to look at the map and see you are flying over Baghdad!😨

 

It was fun to read about Qatar and all that it has to offer!

Soon people started to wake up. They made everyone open their blind and let the sun in.  That did not remove my tiredness! They started serving another meal. I was thinking it would be breakfast, but it was another dinner. I chose Italian chicken over rice and it was kind of tasty! Or my taste buds were the only part of my body getting any sleep! I watched one of my very favorite movies, Serendipity. That helped to pass the time and soon we were getting closer to Doha!  I was really not wanting to chat, so I closed my eyes and put my headphones on. After a few minutes, my new friend was poking me to ask me what time it was.🤣

Beautiful sunrise

Finally we landed! A bright spot was that they let us exit the plane from the front and the back. When you are in the back, that is such a relief! We exited right onto the runway. There was a shuttle there that took us up to the airport.  Here is where I realized how much I would miss my carry on. Carrying my heavy bag and being that tired was not a good combo. I had to stop many times and ask for directions and I had a very long walk, but eventually made it to customs.  I was super nervous for this, but it was easy peasy! I showed my passport, they snapped a pic and asked me how long I planned on staying. Then my bag went through screening and wasn't stopped!  After working up a good sweat, I made it to baggage claim, got my other suitcases and headed out. There is sweaty, no make up, exhausted me and on the other side is my cute hubby looking totally refreshed and taking my picture! Please no! I never want to see just how bad I looked after all of that!😱 Lucky for me he isn't put off by sweat and it felt so good to finally be hugging him!!