Made it

Reader's Digest version: We made it safely to China WITH all our bags.

Expanded (and verbose) version:
Let me set the record straight--international travel is NOT for the faint of heart or the feeble of body, mind and spirit. Since this blogger is feeble in body, mind and spirit, the past 35 hours have been challenging. Actually this has been one of our easiest trips. What originally frustrated us when we booked passage proved to be a blessing in disguise.

When we set out to purchase passage to China we wanted the cheapest way possible. However, we decided against a slow-boat-to-China passage since we would still be in route TO China when we needed to be back at work in the good ole USA. So, our options for economical travel were restricted. Next best option was to use some Rapid Reward tickets from wonderful Southwest Airlines. But again, we faced some restrictions since Southwest doesn't fly into China. (Actually, one of the flight attendants told me they would be glad to fly us into China but they would make 150 stops along the way and couldn't get us there until June. And as much as I love their peanuts, eating only peanuts for 6 months didn't seem like a reasonable gastronomical plan either.) So we began the search to transit via economy and convenience and came up with a plan. We'd use our Rapid Rewards to fly as far as LAX (that's traveleze for Los Angeles International Airport) and use another carrier for the rest of the flight. We used a travel agent out of Springfield, Missouri to help us, which she did. She booked us on Air China, departing LAX at 12:40 A.M., December 18. (Yep, that's 12:40 IN THE MORNING. Yes, you heard me right, just shortly after midnight.)

Okay, we had a departure date and time. Next, booking flights on good ole Southwest using our Rapid Rewards. This got tricky. The only flights available had us leaving LBB (another travel shorthand for Lubbock International Airport) December 17 at 6:30 A.M. (WHAT? LEAVE LUBBOCK ON THE RED EYE, ARRIVE LAX @ 10:00 A.M. LOCAL TIME, AND NOT FLY OUT UNTIL NEARLY 15 HOURS LATER!) To save hundreds of dollars, we accepted this arrangement.

Here's the good part. We decided to see if we could book a room at a nearby hotel in Los Angeles and rest during the day. We did get a room at the Crowne Plaza for our bid price of $50.00. This was a blessing and allowed us to get some sleep and a shower before begining our long trek west.

You'd think flying out of an airport at 12:40 in the morning would leave you plenty of space to operate. I mean, how many people could possible fly out at 12:40 IN THE MORNING? Turns out to be a number roughly equivalent to the population of Alaska and Arkansas COMBINED! We arrived at LAX about 3 hours before our flight was to leave. YES, 3 WHOLE HOURS EARLY. We barely made the flight. (Truth in advertising kicks in here: we actually made it with about 20 minutes to spare, but for international travel, that's making it by the skin of our teeth.) It seems that LAX has only two working x-ray machines for all the luggage needing a health screening prior to being loaded into the belly of the beasts that would deposit them (hopefully) at their intended destination. After checking in at Air China without any lines, we developed the false hope that all the other 300,000 or so people in the airport would not be a hinderance to our luxurous and brief sojourn to the gate for departure. ONCE AGAIN--WRONG! It seems that the TSA, with limited funds for operations, had opted to only have 2 x-ray machines in the terminal. We waited in line for about 40 minutes to drop off our luggage. We next waited about 30 minutes to be examined by the TSA agent conducting an inquiry into the legitimacy of your passport and boarding pass. Upon successfully satisfying his critrical stare, we waited another 25 minutes to be body screened by the TSA. After successfully surviving the screening, we made our short trek to the gate area.

Pardon me, I just nodded off to sleep while writing (like you do whenever you read my postings)FOR THE 15th time. Guess I'd better grab some shut eye while the grabbing is good. I'll post more after a little sleep.