Moses and Flight 1901

It's 7am Miami time - that's right, Miami time meaning we're still in Miami.  All was well arriving from Chicago yesterday.  We knew we'd have a bit of a layover before boarding for a 7:50pm flight to Santo Domingo.  7:50 arrived, and still no plane and no update (when updates do come they are usually in Espanol unless English is requested).  8:50pm.  No plane.  9:50.  10:50.  The screen behind the counter then advertised a midnight departure.  Staff had mentioned the delay of our plane in Tampa (or was it Fort Meyers) and that it would take another hour once it arrived to get it ready for our full flight.  The plane arrived, it took at least an hour, it was after midnight, everyone was finally boarded, and then the announcement came, "For reasons of legality, all passengers are asked to exit the plane."  We're still not sure what happened (we weren't told specifically).  My guess is by the time they had us all ready to go the flight crew could no longer legally serve us - their time to be on the job had expired.

And Moses thought he had it bad dealing with the Israelites.  (Mr. Jim Moses is the Miami airport's Customer Service Manager for American Airlines.)  With all of us off the plane, it was now about 1:30am, and the airline staff was still trying to figure out how to get us all bussed to any number of hotels with vacancies.  That really encouraged all - NOT!  We all knew by the time we got to whatever hotel it would be time to return to the rescheduled departure of Flight 1901 to Santo Domingo.

So, word got out that in another terminal there was a fourth floor auditorium with cots, blankets, and pillows.  By the time we found this sought out "oasis," it was fully occupied with people under blankets, some on cots, others on the floor, still others sleeping upright in chairs.  We managed to find in a storage closet a couple of large plastic bags filled with blankets and pillows - the kind you might get while flying.

I figured we got about 3 hours sleep on the floor minus the time spent awake dealing with the air conditioning blowing on us.  Oh, and the group of Latinos who came through the same hallway we were calling our bedroom to retrieve blankets and pillows for themselves, talking loudly and about to be chewed out by me - until I realized, from the very little Espanol I know, that they weren't talking but praying and thanking Jesus (Gracias, Jesu, Alleluia!  Mucho gracias!).  At this, I got some peaceful rest, if only for 90 minutes.

We all agreed the American Airlines "gift" food vouchers supplied us with manna from heaven and quail for our wilderness wandering.  It was, as someone said, an Easter breakfast, as a new person was resurrected within all of us as we ate and drank - thanks to God's man, Moses...