L.A Airport

So the plane touched down in LA and someone on our flight got sick so we all had to stay put until the paramedics came on the plane and fixed her up. Tim was in awe of the fact that the fire department works in conjunction with the paramedics. I believe his statement was "see Aussie's have it all wrong!"...is Tim going to loose his Aussie patriotism?

So we finally are allowed out of the plane and two big Mexican looking men, whom LA call 'agents', came to assist Tim. They really did not listen to Tim and did not realise that he was both paralysed & dead weight. So they took his arms and lifted him as if he could take his own weight, they soon realised that was not going to work when Tim flopped around like a marionette puppet between them. After a few goes Tim finally got off the plane and we headed to customs. They great thing about LA is that these 'agents' stay with you from the time you get off until the time you board your next flight and they look after all your luggage for you and carry it all so all you have to do is walk and follow your agent.

Customs was a breeze, of all the things we thought would be the trickiest it would be LA customs, given that Tim had a whole suitcase full of medication and syringes. I watched as the suitcase went through with fear that Tim's joke about being on boarder control would come true, but the gentlemen that watched the screen were so busy talking that they didn't even look at the case going through the scanner. Easy as!

So we go to the next counter with our agent to check in to the flight that is going to take us to Vancouver only to discover that we have missed our connecting flight and have to catch a flight to Seattle and then to Vancouver. So our agent takes us to the next place we need to check in so we can go to Seattle. We looked at this as another destination to tick off the map. Tim was just anxious to get to Canada.

We have to go through a whole other set of customs and they were a lot tougher than the previous lot we saw. These guys wheeled Tim away into a booth and did a big search, I was afraid that Tim would come out a changed man with the way it all happened! We eventually got to our plane, last to board only to discover that our agent forgot to collect a piece of luggage so I had to go back and get it. We were lucky to discover it missing and was able to go and get it, otherwise we would have lost it! So we finally get seated in this tiny plane that is so small and squishy and they have no spare space for Roxy and the poor puppy had to squish herself in between Tim and I. She was so squished that she could not even move to turn around. She basically had to stay in the same position for the whole 2.5 hr trip. She looked like one of those snakes squished in those cans that spring out when you open the lid. A middle aged couple was sitting in front of us and the lady was telling the female air steward that she is allergic to dogs and cannot be sitting so close to the dog and could it be put back underneath (like we'd forgotten to check her in with the luggage). Her husband asked the air steward to move us as they were there first. The stewardess explained that Tim was unable to be moved due to his disability but explained that they would move the couple so his wife would not suffer from any allergies Roxy may cause. This man became so irate and stated he was not moving that we had to move instead. A more senior flight control officer came on board and explained to this very stubborn man that either he chose to move or he would be taken off the flight. The couple eventually moved once we had taken off. Then the couple continued to complain about everything and wanted to be moved to business class, which was full, they wanted to have two people demoted from business class that they had paid for, so they could be upgraded for the grief this airline and us had put them through. Very annoying man! The airline were great to us though, they kept offering us free food and cocktails and could not pay us enough attention. After we got off the plane all the staff came and apologised to us and were very sad about the whole situation.