Elder Ostler arrived saftely in Atlanta, Georgia, but with only 40 minutes to get to his next flight. He and his 2 companions made it to the gate but discovered the flight was oversold and they didn't have seat assignments. So when the flight took off, they were still in the terminal. They spoke with the Delta Agent to figure out how to get to Argentina. They will be on the same flight tomorrow, so they have 24 hours to spend in Atlanta, Georgia. Delta gave them meal vouchers, a hotel and $800 each. That is not a typo.
They realized they had to notify Salt Lake so since Jackson was the seasoned traveler, he was nominated by his companions to make the call. He dialed the number and got a recording which said, "If this is an emergency, press 0." He thought to himself, "Sweet, this is definitely an emergency" so he pressed 0.
We (his family) were all home, sitting around the computer watching the real time flight data of flight 101 to Buenos Aries; like we got nothin' else to do. The flight had taken off and had been airborne for about 25 mintes and we were talking about how excited we were for him to be flying to Argentina. The phone rang and the Caller ID displayed "PAY PHONE." We knew instantly that it was Jackson calling from Atlanta and that he was not on the airplane that we were tracking on the computer. Our hearts sunk and we felt so sad. We put him on speaker phone and he related the story to us. Amazingly, he was in good spirits in spite of missing his long awaited flight to Argentina. He is experiencing culture shock seeing people walk around with headphones on and talking on cell phones.
The good news? He just might use all 500 minutes on his calling card before he leaves the country because he will be calling us again tomorrow around lunch time.
12 years ago
