So Long, Smell You Later.

Rhonda at Because Mom Said So is hosting a Have Travel Will Story contest . The winner of the contest will win a round trip ticket to visit her in Connecticut. Isn't that amazing and extremely generous of her. I would love to win. I have an Aunt, Uncle and cousins that live in Connecticut that I haven't seen in over ten years, plus I would love to meet Rhonda. She and her family would be a lot of fun to meet. Sooooo I'm submitting the following travel story.



First let me start with a little background. My husband and I were living in SLC, UT and we were eagerly awaiting the birth of our first baby. When I was seven months pregnant, my husband was transferred to California (YIKES!) Why do bosses and corporations do that to pregnant women???

My parents and family all live in Tampa, Florida. My husband, the new and only granddaughter and I lived in Northern California. There was way too much space in between for everyone concerned. My husband had tons of frequent flyer miles from former positions with his company so he sweetly arranged to fly Paige and I back to Tampa quite often.


When Paige was about six months old, I packed the suitcase and the diaper bag and hit the skies again for a flight from San Francisco to Tampa with a stopover in Los Angeles. Paige was a wonderful little traveler. She never cried and the change in pressure never seemed to bother her. Paige and I were fortunate to be able to sit in first class on most of these trips because of my husband’s Frequent Flier status with that particular airline.


We boarded our plane in San Francisco early one morning. I held Paige in my lap. My seatmate sat down next to me and I immediately noted (smelled) a problem. The man must have eaten multiple bulbs of raw garlic the night before because let me tell you he STUNK! I pretty much spent the entire flight leaning away from this guy and gasping for a breath of fresh air (if there is such a thing on a plane) out in the aisle.

When we landed in Los Angeles, the stinky guy left the plane, but was still continuing on to Tampa. I’m thinking OH, NO! I can’t smell this guy all the way to Tampa! I said something to one of the flight attendants. She said she noticed it too and she moved me and Paige to an empty seat in a different section of first class. They began to board the new passengers and when my new seatmate walked up and saw me and my six month old baby he slammed his brief case and coat down in the seat, ordered a Bloody Mary and then stormed off to talk to the flight attendant in her prep area. I knew right away he was ticked to have to sit next to a baby on the cross-country flight. The sweet, quick-thinking flight attendant was able to accommodate his wishes right away and moved this obnoxious, obviously annoyed, mean guy to a different seat next to…. YOU GUESSED IT….the stinky guy. HA!

I ended up with an empty seat next to me. Paige never made a peep the whole trip. I hope mean guy enjoyed sitting next to stinky guy all the way to Tampa.