The Ashleys and I have been together in Portugal since Friday. How many crazy things could have happened in that short amount of time?

Let’s begin.

Obviously, our flight was delayed. So long, in fact,  we missed our connecting flight in Boston and they had to rebook us on a different airline that was leaving at 9 pm.
The ground crew told us there was a bar close by, so AshWat bought us a celebratory round of Cabernet. We sat at a tiny table, eating Jelly Bellys out of the giant bag her mom packed us, and sipped our wine out of little plastic cups. We laughed as we made up back stories for all the travelers around us, and then AshWat knocked over her cup. Half an inch of wine spread fantastically over the crotch and legs of her white linen capri pants and when she stood up, she definitely drew some unwanted attention.

The fun part was that they’d already checked our bags and AshWat brought NO OTHER CLOTHES in her carry on. Nothing. So she was stuck wearing suspiciously stained pants all the way to Portugal..until a sweet lady stopped, unzipped her carry-on, and handed AshWat a brand new pair of leggings.

The ground crew applauded, the two women hugged, and AshWat changed into grey footie leggings and threw the other ones away. Crisis averted.

Two hours later, we were off. There was apparently “weather” in Boston, but they cleared us to fly.

We landed at Logan FIFTEEN MINUTES before our connecting flight was scheduled to leave. It was another five before they opened the door, and our next gate was a ten minute walk away.

We ran.

 AshWat has more stamina than I do (she practices or something), so as I slowed she ran ahead to hold the plane. I speed-walked up to the gate a minute behind, and the “friendly” Boston ground crew told us they’d been about to “offboard” us. No sympathy was extended for our late flight, nor congratulations offered for us making it right under the wire. Instead, we were bluntly informed that our luggage wouldn’t make it on the plane in time.

Awesome. Again, AshWat had only a five pound container of trail mix and a Harry Potter coloring book in her carry on.

Half an Ambien later, we settled in for our red-eye, at last on our way to meet AshCap in Lisbon, Portugal!

To Be Continued…

Ang