Airport!

Being infrequent airline passengers, we approached our beloved enemy with a little fear and trepidation yesterday, especially since we weren't accustomed to using Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.  We normally drive to Wichita, where the airport is relatively easy to access for us, but this time our tickets to Atlanta were from Oklahoma.

The drive down was uneventful, but when the highway veered off toward the airport, the exits we had to take came thick and fast. Thank God for a GPS!  Finally we were at the airport, which seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere, compared to the congestion we'd been through.  We accidentally passed the parking lots and found ourselves in a parking garage for returned rentals.

"What now?" I asked anxiously. My grim-faced spouse didn't answer, but we saw daylight at the opposite end of the building.  Howard kept driving, and soon we were outside, circling until we came upon the parking lot entrance again.  The shuttle picked us up and deposited us at the right terminal.   We began to relax, the first part of our journey almost complete.  We made it through security and were ready for a late lunch at one of the food courts ahead.  We still had a couple of hours to spare, but we were thankful for the extra time.

The flight was unusually smooth!  The ground twinkled as city lights became strings of multi-colored Christmas-tree lights below us.  Jewel-like against the darkness of the earth, they presented a rare--for us--and beautiful sight from above.  A magazine read, a miniature bag of pretzels and a Sprite later, the announcement came on that we were descending to the busiest airport in the world, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International airport.  Then came pulling unwieldy carry-ons down the long passage way.

"How far to baggage claim?" I asked an attendant.  It was several concourses ahead, then down an escalator to the high-speed trains I dreaded.  Getting on, I saw a vacant bench marked "Seniors and Disabled."  "Howard, let's sit down!  It says for seniors!" He didn't hear me, so I repeated it loudly. A smiling woman holding on to a pole said something to me which I didn't quite catch in the whooshing speed of the train.

"What?" I questioned, to which she replied, "I said, 'You both look too young to have to sit down!'" Wow! That made my day and put a spring in my step as we went to meet our kids who had just arrived themselves. We stepped into the beautiful night, thanking God for the miracle of flight!