Traveling Tales -- Swallowing My Pride

This weekend, I flew across the country.  I knew I had a layover at the Charlotte airport, which, most inconveniently, seems to spread its concourses as far apart as it possible.  Having literally run through the airport in previous trips (nevertheless missing a flight), I knew the airport would present extra difficulties for me these days, now that walking hurts.  Upon the excellent advice of my father-in-law, I spoke to the gate attendant at my gate in LAX, and let them know that I will need assistance at my connecting airport, and asked them to call ahead to have an electric cart waiting.  They gave me a form to fill out (with three carbon copies), and told me to give the top copy to a flight attendant when I board the plane.  I did.  However, the flight attendant, using somewhat of a rude voice, asked me, "What am I supposed to do with THIS?" Lovely.

So I didn't have high hopes when I deplaned in Charlotte, but to my surprise, the flight attendant had passed on the paperwork to a gate attendant, who had called for an electric cart.  I shared the cart with a guy who wore a huge leg cast and was walking with crutches.  I felt so self conscious, as if everyone who saw me on the cart was wondering why this lazy young lady was taking advantage of the electric cart system.  I had to go from the very end of terminal C to the very end of terminal E.  My embarrassment ended abruptly during the ride when I recalled exactly how large each concourse was. WOW.  I'd have been yelping in pain for the entire trip if I hadn't swallowed my pride and asked for assistance.  

The drivers of the carts (that's intentionally plural -- I needed two different carts because terminal E requires an elevator/stairs/escalator trip) couldn't have been nicer. I was expecting them to take one look at me, give me an angry look and demand to know my justification for the cart.  They're probably not allowed to do that.  But still, it was nice to get the help I needed without any big production.  I was in a bit of pain for sitting on the airplane for a while, but I was able to do enough walking (between my gate and the bathroom) to loosen up, but not so much that I overdid it. 

For future travel, I don't think it's necessary to arrange for transport up front, but it sure was helpful and did save me a lot of time and aggravation. I'm sure that each airport has its own way of doing things, but I feel a little less intimidated by the process. And as with the handicap parking spaces, it's good to remember that people need assistance for all kinds of reasons, and pain is definitely not always visible to others.