I think this is Chapter 4

Fast forward to 3 days later. Bear in mind that the physical therapist has been there on Monday and issued him a walker which he can barely move in. We're talking about imperceptible movement here. And Bionic Man still maintains he will be out the next day for the birthday party of Will's. He was discharged and that's another saga. But Thursday we are due to return home. I have many misgivings here. First of all, we have 2 ginormous suitcases, and a medium sized one, which we check, and 2 carry ons. But now we also have a walker and crutches, and I have to manage alone. (Hand to forehead, Scarlett style) Sure, we will engage a profusion of skycaps, smarte cartes and so on, but still the task seems daunting.

It started out okay. We were met by a cheerful skycap and wheelchair. We were told when we checked our bags, that the flight was delayed. (I don't want to incriminate anyone by naming names here, but the name rhymes with Melta) This has become a common occurrence on Melta. So, we sit at the gate to wait. About 45 minutes into the wait we are informed by the cute, perky voice on the speaker that the plane is broken and thus, the flight canceled. However, they have provided us a BUS to make the journey from Greenville to Atlanta to catch our connecting flights. Yes, folks, a bus. I'm not sure if everyone was stunned, or still checking their calendars to see if this was April Fools' Day, or what, but no one moved. So the perky voice informed us that we had 15 minutes to get to the bus or it would leave without us. As we ran to the escalators I happened to catch the last information. "Oh, you will have to get your bags at the baggage claim too." And Let me tell you, she never told us just where the bus was, only that we had to be there in 15 minutes. Because we were impeded by a wheel chair, I heard that last announcement. Others were not as lucky. So what would have been a 40 minute flight, turned into a 3 hour bus ride.

Of course everyone missed their connections. We were on a guaranteed flight at 10 pm. But we were also on a standby at 5:30. We had thought we'd be home by 4:30. When we arrived at the standby gate, Wayne proudly handed me 2 meal vouchers he had been issued, 'for our inconvenience', each valued at $6. Wow. In an airport you're lucky if $6 will buy you a bag of chips. I squandered mine on a smoothie. Wayne wasted his. He was saving it incase we didn't make the standby flight, and it expired that day. (Another hand to forehead) We did make it on the standby flight and were home around 7:30.

More in chapter 5 to come.