THE ANGEL CHORUS

Brad, the oldest son, recently anounced his intention to take a bride for the first time at the ripe old age of 38....joy reigned throughout...and the fact that it would be held in Maui, Hawaii significantly enhanced family enthusiasm.

Accordingly, the ole ranch hand acquired the requisite reservations and started the epic journey by rising at 4AM to arrive at the Austin barnstormin' hanger on time. Then confidently mounted the assigned aircraft at the appointed hour for a brief hop to Dallas for a plane change for the final run to Maui.

The jet jockey was jus' bout to put that puppy in rear/verse when one solid citizen-passenger pointed out to the cabin waitress that a small 4"X18" strip of plastic in the ceiling of our craft had one of its two metal screw fasteners backed out nearly half way.

The brakes went on....Mr. Technician showed up.....carefully studied the phillips head screw that had partially come unwound....and took it out completely and pulled the plastic strip down a mite to verify there was nothing but a narrow hollow space beyond. Brother Techie then wallked off the plane for a few and our driver announced they be required to file a "damage" report with FAA, file a written plan for repair, and a (backup) written plan for replacement.

So we waited...and we waited....and we, hells bells....sat there for over three hours on the tarmac while the maintenance crew and FAA played passenger tiddly winks or sumpthin?????

Finally the gods of fate intervened and the joy stick bombadier said that we had received "verbal" approval for the "plan", but would have to wait for a hard copy of the paper work before implementation.

Bout 20 minutes later our screw driver guru entered our tense domain, turned the screw a few rounds, and seemed surprised at the standing ovation given by his audience.

Unbelievable!

Finally got to Dallas...just in time to miss our flight to Maui????

Managed to wrangled another flight scheduled a bit later, but in a different terminal....RAN down the halls, up the escalators, dived into the tram cars....and plunged headlong down the coridors of the new terminal to the gate......just as that flight left?????

One more chance...the ole fat boy and his child bride got on "back-up" status for the last flight of the day to the next stop (not Maui...Los Angelas...and then to Maui????)

Yep, ran like crazed gazelles to....A DIFFERENT TERMINAL....and found there were 78 people on stand-by for that flight (but we were numbers 14 and 15).

Started praying like the God fearing, true believers we are for Devine intervention....cuz we were fresh out of bullets, near the end of the trail, and no posse left.

Every other human being at that gate got on the plane, except the two pooch lipped Tin Star Ranch country bumpkins???

The ticket agent announced there was one seat available....the mother of the groom-to-be gratefully boarded the plane with promises that her slow witted husband would be along shortly as the Lord always provides for his most humble servants. Yeah, the bride bawled and protested at going "alone", but reluctantly walked down the jetway to her matrimonial destiny.

And then a miracle began to unfold....

The little ticket gal smiled at the kindly gray haired old fart in front of her and said she would do her best "to make things right"....had to tell that charming soul flat out that if God wants me on that plane, God will put me there.....

Bout that time the angel chorus started a hollerin', trumpets blared, and that skinny leg reservation woman whipped out the last ticket for the last seat on a plane that had to hold the door open while grandpa wheezed (one mo' time) on an Olynpic sprint to his wife.

Anywho, got to LAX for the last lap of our journey to Maui....it was a wunnerful feelin'...well... except for the fact that we was runnin an hour late due to a flight delay in Dallas????

Dammit....we took off runnin' like diarhea crazed monkeys on a steady diet of ex-lax bannanas with no toilet paper. Rounded the last corner to our gate (where not one other soul was standing) just in time to hear the proclamation that boarding was over....

SLAPPED them boarding passes up side the head of the single remaining airline employee at the gate and charged like two rabid rhinos down that jetway just in time to slide our hot feet across the door and be called safe.

And just think...only 19 hours from home to hotel that day?????

(On our second day in Maui, our bag that was stranded in Dallas and the one left in LA arrived at the hotel....thank the Lord for Walmart for essentials in time of need?)