<![CDATA[We arrived 2 hours before our flight, and already I could tell this trip would not begin without a few complications. The first of our upcoming series of rocky beginnings was parking at the airport. My dad had never been to Detroit’s airport before, and nobody else really had any experience with parking here either. So naturally, I wasn’t able to be much help for him to get the cheapest spots. Nick, my brother, traveled with him around the confusing series of roads to find this mystery parking complex known as the “blue lot”. Coming in from McNamara, that’s not super easy to find for someone not used to airports. Eventually, after an hour-long process, he managed to get himself parked for $10/day, and then catch a shuttle back to check in. But it was then that a new problem arose, one that would potentially become a major setback in our plans for a smooth journey: Nick’s passport. You see, while my brother and father were out parking the truck, Hang and the rest of us were getting checked in ourselves and getting our Visa applications verified. This process also includes checking in our luggage, one of which contained Nick’s passport. We weren’t aware that Nick had placed the passport in his check-in bag, and felt no risk in helping to speed along the process of getting into the airport. We were apparently wrong. Throughout the next 45 minutes, Nick and I waited near the check-in desk for airport representatives to search for the recently checked-in bag matching the description of Nick’s luggage, wondering whether or not we were even going to make the flight or not. Would we need to be rescheduled? Hang and the rest of my family was told to go on through security without us, so the possibility of being split up was certainly there. Mom’s cell phone would go on to cause our phones to ring several times wanting updates before we would finally, after nearly an hour, be told that his luggage had been found, and that his passport was downstairs for him to go and get. So, with all boarding passes secure and passports checked, Nick and I headed through security ourselves. We had a bit of a run, seeing as the flight was already boarding as we passed through the numerous TSA checks. We would eventually meet up with the rest of my family, waiting in line for us to arrive. My mother had been crying, believing at this point that both Nick and myself would not be making the trip with them on the same flights. We would later have one more problem regarding visa applications while my dad and Nick were boarding the plane, seeing as though they never had their Visa applications checked when we did (another step we never got to do for them while they were parking). The entire experience was a bit taxing, and adding in a long flight lasting over half-a-day in the air would make the experience even less enjoyable to start things off. [charliead]]]>
Pryors In Vietnam: A Rocky Beginning To A Very Long Journey