Day 3+1 – The Final Push Home (and the Angel at the Gate)

4:00 a.m.

Okay. I’m up.

Let’s get this day started. Deep breath. Optimism… activated.

We got dressed, grabbed our things, and stepped out the door. Our taxi was already waiting—awesome. The driver (whose name I, unfortunately, didn’t catch) was kind and chatty, and before we knew it, we were pulling up to the airport.

We rallied what enthusiasm we could and marched toward TSA for our supposed 9 a.m. flight.

But of course… another hiccup.

TSA flagged Azura’s boarding pass as invalid, while I was not asked to provide mine allowing me through. I made it through the checkpoint, but she was turned away. So we split the party—I took all the bags through security while Azura headed to the customer service desk to figure out what was going on.

I tossed everything into the bins—pocket lint, chargers, Switch, iPad, battery packs… the usual tech stack that screams “secondary screening.” I stood in my best “don’t arrest me” pose—arms up, feet apart—got scanned, and waited for the x-ray gods to judge my luggage.

For what felt like five long minutes, TSA squinted at the 3D scans of my overstuffed bags. I was mentally preparing for them to start digging through everything when, suddenly, the bags spat out the other end like unwanted gum. No questions asked.

Shoes on. Belt secured. Moving along.

I called Azura to check in—and in classic American Airlines fashion, no one knew what was going on. There was nothing in the system for our flight.

But after what felt like an eternity, Azura made it happen. She got our “new” boarding passes. Let me just say this:

If there’s one person on Earth you don’t want to frustrate, it’s my wife.

She may be soft-spoken and sweet, but she will absolutely tear through red tape if she has to. If diplomacy fails, I’ll personally destroy the cosmos to keep her happy. No joke.

Anyway, world-ending rampage averted, she finally made it back to TSA—only for her shoes to set off the scanner. Naturally.

Security checked them over, found nothing, and we moved on. Because, you know… life’s full of dumb moments. We do our best not to let them ruin all the other ones.

Now finally cleared and about four hours early for our hopefully real 9 a.m. flight, we found a seat and got ready to wait.

But just ten minutes later…

An angel appeared at the boarding desk.

They saw our situation and offered to move us to an earlier flight with a few open seats in the back. Without hesitation, we grabbed our things and booked it to the new gate. And just like that, we were boarding a plane to Dallas.

Cookies, Calm Skies, and Drafting This Very Story

We got the whole back row of seats to ourselves. The flight crew was awesome. One even gave us handfuls of cookies—possibly because they were close to expiration, but hey, cookies are cookies. You won’t hear me complain.

While in the air, I started typing out the first drafts of these posts. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride—or at least gotten a few good laughs out of it.

We landed in Dallas at 8 a.m. and had a few hours to kill before our 12 p.m. flight. We grabbed some BBQ and sweet tea, and I briefly considered checking if our Indy 500 train operator from earlier in the week was still on shift. But between full bellies and tired legs, we opted to just wait it out.

Eventually, we boarded again—no delays this time—and we were finally, finally on our way home.

Also worth noting:

That original flight we were supposed to be on?

Yeah. It kept getting delayed. As of 10 p.m. Pacific, it was still running late—set to arrive at 1 a.m. Central.

So to the gate angel who moved us? You have no idea how grateful we are.

Home, Sweet Chaos

We landed at Ontario Airport with a little motion sickness from the turbulence (I may have been writing during the entire flight…), but we made it. At last.

We picked up the kids, collected the doggo, and finally rolled into the driveway around 3–4 p.m.—tired, happy, and totally wiped.

And with that, this amazing adventure came to an end.

We’re already hoping to go back again next year—but this time, with a small crew to help us cover more ground.

Until then, stay tuned—because the expo might be over, but now that we’re home… a whole new adventure begins.

And this one?

Might just be our biggest yet.