Alaska: Day 5--Poor Doc and Karole

Sunday was interesting to say the least. We went to my parents' ward...the one I attended in high school. Speaking of high school, that's where church was. I had totally forgotten that my parents' chapel (the one that shares the parking lot with the Anchorage Temple) caught on fire a year ago last March. It's still being worked on. Apparently, if they tore it down and rebuilt it, they'd have to rebuild it smaller because of building codes, since it shares the parking lot with the temple. So they are slowly rebuilding it from the inside out. I would have thought they'd be done by now....since I've known temples to go up faster than that, but I also forget that their construction season isn't quite as long up here.

So...there are now four wards meeting at the new South Anchorage High School. I would have attended this school had it been built. It's only 4 years old. Sacrament meeting was held in the auditorium. The podium was on the stage and the congregation sat in the bleachers. It was loud and creaky. I couldn't just sneak out with rowdy kids. But the Spirit was there nonetheless.

After church we were anticipating the arrival of Jared's parents. They were due to fly in around 9:30pm. Jared said he hoped that their visit in Alaska would be a nice change for them on this vacation. This is why:

His parents have been on a Grandchildren Tour. They're from Illinois and prior to going to Alaska, they would be in CA blessing Jared's sister's baby. So they decided to see Jared's brother's family in Utah as well.

First stop: Lehi, UT on Saturday, Aug. 2nd. The two younger kids (out of six) were just getting over the stomach flu.

On Sunday, Aug. 3rd, three older kids stayed home from church because they had the stomach flu.

Monday, Aug. 4th, Jared's brother Kevin got the flu and stayed home from work.

Tuesday, Aug. 5th, Jared's mom, Karole got sick. Sheesh, some visit. What a bummer on all accounts.

On Wed., Aug. 6th, Doc and Karole left Utah. They changed planes in Vegas, heading for Sacramento, CA to see Jared's sister, Nicole. Doc had a window seat, Karole was in the middle and another lady sat in the aisle seat. For some reason, the plane was stuck on the tarmac. It was during this time that Karole started feeling faint and she passed out. And then without warning, still out cold, she threw up all over their row. All over her, the seats, Doc and the poor unsuspecting lady in the aisle seat. In the words of my father-in-law, he said it was like something out of the Exorcist. He wouldn't have been surprised if Karole's head started spinning 360 degrees. Needless to say, the lady in the aisle changed seats. Fortunately for Karole she had a change of clothes in her carry on...her jammies. Ewww. What a mess. How awful for everyone!

Thursday, Aug. 7th, Doc came down with the flu. Fortunately, they were staying in a hotel and didn't pass the disease on to Jared's sister's family. But that's where the quarantine was.

Friday, Aug. 8th, Doc was hotel bound.

Saturday, Aug. 9th, they were going to get together with Karole's brothers and wives, but they had to cancel due to their being sick.

Sunday, Aug. 10th, they were both well enough to bless grandbaby #11 and then jumped on a plane from Sacramento to Seattle, changed planes in Seattle and got on board Alaska Airlines flight 95 bound for Anchorage. Where, hopefully, they could enjoy some of their vacation without being sick or having to cancel plans.

Around 9pm at my parents' house, before leaving to pick up Doc and Karole from the airport, my dad, like the good retired pilot that he is, got online to check on the arrival time. He reported to us that flight 95 had been cancelled. My dad likes to joke and I thought he was kidding, but he said he wasn't. It didn't make sense. Doc and Karole never called to tell us it was cancelled and their flight left over 2 1/2 hours ago. The online status information referred us to the comments section below. It indicated that flight 95 from Seattle to Anchorage was cancelled. Then it showed flight 95 from Seattle to Seattle was due to arrive at 11:02pm. More confusion. My dad looked at the flight tracker and it showed the plane 2/3 of the way to Anchorage. As we mulled this over, we could only conclude that the plane was turned around mid-flight and for who knows what reason.

I decided not to get all wound up in knots with speculation and phoned Alaska Airlines for more information. The automated system told me only what I already knew...the flight was cancelled, so I just sat and waited while it repeated this information 2 more times. I was finally connected with a human, though getting information from her was like pulling teeth. Her answers were very short and crisp.
"Hi, I'm calling about flight 95."
"Is that your flight?"
"No, but my in-laws are on it."
"That flight's been cancelled."
"Yes, I see that, but according to the flight tracker, they were already en route."
"They had to turn the plane around."
"They did? Can you tell me why?"
"Because there are three volcanoes that erupted and the winds are blowing the ash across their flight path."
"Ohhh. So when will they get to Anchorage?"
"I don't know. Maybe tomorrow. Probably not until Tuesday." (Inward groan. Jared, his dad and my dad were scheduled for those halibut charters Monday and Tuesday. This was the highlight of the trip for both Jared and his dad).
"Will the airline put them up for the night?"
"I don't know." (Another groan.)
"Alright, thank you for your help."

So volcanic activity was now the vacation culprit for Doc and Karole. Dad said the airline wasn't obligated to put them up in a hotel for the night because the eruptions are "an act of God." Of course.

To say Jared was completely disappointed would be an understatement. Doc's fishing trip on Monday was down the drain for sure. We might be able to salvage Tuesday. Mom and I convinced Jared and Dad to go ahead with their fishing plans because they had given the captain their word. There wasn't anything they could do here in town anyway. Ironically, when Dad made the reservation for these charters, no deposit was taken, which is very unusual. This is big money for these guys and they need guarantees. But Dad has fished with them before so we figured his word was good enough.

Mom said that if Doc and Karole caught a flight on Monday, she'd drive Doc the three hours down to Ninilchik so he could be there for the charter on Tuesday. And then all we could do was hope.

We had to wait for them to call once they got back to Seattle. They did. We told them we knew what was going on and then they had the fun task of rebooking their flight. Easier said than done. Their flight was the first one to be cancelled while they were in the air. No one was coming or going to Alaska. So all the passengers of other cancelled flights who were already at the airport got first dibs on rebooking. (According to the Anchorage Daily News, 23 flights were cancelled on Sunday and another 13 for Monday morning). By the time Doc and Karole got to the terminal, the line for rebooking was 2 blocks long. We felt soooooo bad for them. I mean really...haven't they been through enough?

The way things were going, I figured they'd never want to see any of their kids or grandkids again...at least in the same trip. I even told Jared to tell them when they spoke briefly, that we would totally understand if they just wanted to go home. I know I would. But they were able to get a flight on Tuesday at noon, which meant, sadly, that halibut fishing was completely out of the question for Doc. We did reassure him he'd have halibut to take home, but it just isn't the same.

Once Doc and Karole were here, I asked Karole to tell me about the events surrounding their flight from Seattle and back to Seattle. She said that the captain came on the intercom and told the passengers he was sorry, but they had to return to Seattle. He had received word that there had been some volcanic activity in the area (in the Aleutian Islands several hundred miles to the west, actually) and he didn't know how high or how far around they would have to fly to avoid the plume and that meant not knowing if they had enough fuel. I wondered why they didn't just fly UNDER the ash, but my dad taught me that when you fly lower, you actually burn more fuel.

Karole just sat their thinking, "You're kidding! This is an Alaskan joke, right?"
Then the captain came back on and explained to the passengers the effects the ash could have on the engines. Ash is molten glass and could clog the engines causing engine failure. So then Karole decided going back to Seattle wasn't such a bad idea after all. How horribly inconvenient and frustrating, though! To make matters worse, they wouldn't have access to any of their checked bags either while the spent 1 day and 2 nights in Seattle.

Talk about "a cherry on top" of their already "memorable" vacation. I did tell Karole though, that at least it was volcanoes that turned them around and not a cracked windshield or faulty light. Who would've thought? Good grief. I couldn't make this up even if I tried.