An Event Filled Day

Hello Friends and Family:)
When you hear the word airplane, what do you think of? Delays, lost baggage, stinky bathrooms (which smells up the whole plane) upset people, crying babies... the list goes on. I thankfully have never really had any of this. But I dont think we could categorize ourselves as humans unless we do at some point, I did today. I want to take you on a trip down memory lane. A very event filled day for me on mulitple airplanes:)
My plane was supposed to leave STL at 2:00 today. Jazzy, our nice flight lady, politely told us that our flight was on time and that we would leave on time. We load the tiny, tiny plane ( 2 seats on one side and 1 seat on the other side), check in our one carry on (becasue the plane was that small and we didnt have room to store it by our seats) and take our seats.
After sitting for 20-25 minutes, Jazzy informs us that the plane is overweight and we have to remove some things. She proceeds to call the one gentleman, who serves in the military, BY NAME over the intercome and tells him that he was OVERWEIGHT and that he had to leave the plane! I could not belive it!! I felt so bad for him and seriously wanted to cry. Im so sure, He wasnt overweight, just a ton of muscle he built from fighting for our country... and he gets booted off the plane. :( Jazzy then begins to tell us that she needs four additional volunteers who will give up there seat and take the next flight to Washington because we were still overweight. NO ONE moved. Half of our flight was international flights with connecting flights. There were alot of angry people on this plane, raising their voices about the fear of missing their flight. No one wanted to get off and people were upset. Finally she got back on the intercome and told us that they would give a $400 vouchure to get off the flight and arrive later that night. WE had 4 volunteers and I clapped for them as they left the plane. :)
We wait for all of their luggage to be removed from our little plane and then begin our take off. We make it up into the air and after about 15-20 mintues the Captian (who was very handsome) gets on the intercome and informs us that the take off gear will not lift up and its protocol that we land back in STL. After circling STL for over 45 minutes, with crying baby, we finally landed in STL right where we left. We had to exit the plane and wait pateintly as they got a new aircraft.
The new aircraft arrived and what was supposed to be only 15 more minutes turned into another solid hour waiting. I met a sweet sweet person named Karen:) We talked, shared jokes and laughed the whole time. I also met two other fellas, one was Scott and the other I dont remember his name. Scott lives in Belgium and the other fella was very knowledgable about the aircraft and traveling. He talked with the captians the whole time. It turns out that the captians chair in the new plane was broken. They had to order a new chair and install a new captians chair before we left!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL People, we didn't leave STL until 6:00! At this point I had already missed my connecting flight which would have been 7:00pm. They could not book a new flight for me to Frankfurt untill I got to Washington... there weren't any seats available at the time.
The flight to WAshington was great besides we didn't have air condition for the first 30 mintes. Still the same fussy baby, who was adorable!!!!!! Once I got there I had to find a new lady to help me look at my options for a new connecting flight. While waiting I met a another new friend named Karoline, who is from Lithuania. She also was supposed to be flyign into Frankfut. We stuck together as we walked all over the Washington Dulles Airport. Turns out that there werent any available seats for the 10:30pm flight and we would have to wait 'standby' in case someone cancelled their flight. We did not make that plane, and now we both have to wait to the next available flight which is tomorrow July 3rd at 5:23pm. Ugh!
So Karoline and I grabbed our free hotel vouchers and our $15 food voucher and headed for the shuttle. After waiting about 30 minutes for a shuttle if not longer we made it back to our hotel. We each went and ordered a pizza at the hotel restaurant so we would have left overs tomorrow.:)
Turns out Karoline wants to go to school in STL and she is staying in OFallon :) She's taking care of bussiness back home and then will come back to the states in August or December. I totally met a great new friend, Praise God:)
So that was my packed fun day. Oh, Yeah... also without my luggage. I have some things in my carry on, but not everything I need. Of course:) LOL. I'm off to bed and tomorrow we will rise early to hit the air and space museum. Its free and only 50 cents each way to ride the shuttle. Hopefully I make it to Germany safely and no more delays!!.
Love you all and God Bless!
BTW NO critiquing spelling or grammar. I just type what I think. I'm not an English teacher :)