Cloud Stryke : Y2K-Twenty Four Years Late

Remember all of those dire, catastrophic predictions leading up to January 1, 2000.  Well, they didn't happen then, but twenty-four and a half years later, the other shoe finally dropped.  Ken and our Cameron family got caught in the middle of it. 

 I took Ken to our local airport at 5:00 am on Saturday July 20th.  He flew out of St. George to Salt Lake City with no delays or problems.  He met up with the Camerons there to fly to Mexico for this year's humanitarian trip.  Their flight was to leave from SLC at about 10am.  At the gate, they kept announcing that they were waiting for flight attendants to come.  Finally, about 2pm, they cancelled the flight.  The airport was packed with people and all of them formed a LONG line at customer service to get help to reschedule flights. 

The Cameron kids are all readers and passed the time reading

Blake waited in that line for over six hours!  After a lot of negotiating over the next couple of days, he was able to schedule a flight for himself, Hannah, and one of his assistants and her husband on Monday.  The rest were scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.  It was the best they could do.

Almost there!  Look at the long line still behind them.

Nearing the front of the line.  Yea!

The ridiculously long line to customer service.

People and luggage everywhere.

They then went down to retrieve their luggage, only to find a line at least as long as the customer service line upstairs.  It was then nearing 10:00pm.  They decided to come back the next day.  

If you look at the back of this picture you can see the massive amount of luggage waiting to be claimed.  That was only the luggage that had been brought out.  There were still mountains and mountains of luggage hiding in the back room, waiting to be called up.  What a mess!

After church on Sunday they went back to pick up luggage.  Blake was able to order his three bags to be brought up (thank goodness as it was full of dental supplies!) but Ken's was lost.  Ken went back that evening and they couldn't locate it. They still couldn't locate it on Monday. He was without clothes and basic necessities.  Blake's parents, who were expedition leaders, had flown out on Friday and got to Mexico just fine.  They called and offered for all of them to stay in their SLC home while they were stranded.  Blake's dear brother Brandon (who also lives in the SLC area) gave Ken some necessities to get by on Sunday and even for the trip if needed if his bag wasn't located.  Ken spent Monday shopping for clothes, garments, and toiletries.  Brandon loaned him a duffle, sleeping bag, mattress, and various other supplies.

Blake, Hannah, and his assistant flew out on Monday and got there that night and were able to get to the small Mexican village on Tuesday morning and start their dental work.

When Shonna, Lily, Caleb, and Ken got to the airport on Tuesday, the helpful agent said that Ken's bag had been located.  It was in Mexico City.  She ordered it to be sent to Leon, where they would be spending the night.  The flight was on time and they got to Leon late that night, but there was no luggage. Ken eventually got his bag on Wednesday afternoon in the village.  The leaders went down and picked it up for him.  Yea!

Finally on the shuttle to their flight.

I know a lot of people were caught up in that mess.  It truly was a disaster!  So those four only got to help on the humanitarian project for just a day and a half, but at least they got to go.  Blake had a day longer there to take care of the long lines of people waiting for dental help.  

I'll be sharing pictures and adventures on here about their trip.  Stay tuned!