Saying goodbye for second semester was perhaps a little easier, but I still cried silent tears as I watched my boy make his way through airport security. I kept crying as he turned and gave me a final wave before disappearing into the terminal. I was still wiping tears when I met Jon curbside and got in the car for home.
First semester proved he could do it! He lived far away from home and was very successful, so we were both feeling much more confident than when we'd parted ways in September. Still, it was hard to see him go. And his return trip would be quite the fiasco.
Caleb's first flight was uneventful. He landed in Salt Lake and waited through a fairly lengthy layover. Then, though he boarded his connecting flight to Idaho Falls on time, due to winter weather in Utah, his plane sat on the tarmac for over an hour. This meant that he would miss his connection to the last shuttle of the day, which was supposed to take him from Idaho Falls to campus in Rexburg.
And at this same time, we became aware of this posting on the BYU-I website:
Frostbite in minutes? Caleb had nothing more than a hoodie and no gloves. Imagining him walking a mile from the shuttle drop-off point to his apartment, while juggling his luggage in sub-zero temperatures made for nervous parents.
After an annoying runaround with the shuttle company, Jon had been told that the bus was running late, also due to wintry weather, so Caleb could still probably catch it. When he touched down in Idaho Falls, however, Caleb stepped out of the terminal just in time to see the shuttle driving away.
It was now 11:00 at night and we weren't sure how to get Caleb to Rexburg. Uber? Do they even have drivers in Idaho Falls? Jon looked into it and was able to order a driver to pick Caleb up. The driver, however, thought Jon had told him his name was Taylor, so when he told Caleb he was there to get Taylor, Caleb assumed it wasn't his ride and started to walk away into the dark, freezing night. Jon had a phone on each ear yelling into one, "No! Not Taylor, Caleb!" and "Caleb! that's him! That's your ride!" into the other.
About this time, Caleb also informed us that he didn't have a key to his apartment. He had to turn it in between semesters. So we'd arranged a way to get him home to the frozen tundra, but could he get in the house?
His new roommate, whom he'd never met, thankfully responded to Caleb's knocking on the door even though it was now after midnight.
Jon sunk back into the couch, the tensions visibly released from his body has let out a massive sigh and said, "I got my boy back safely!"
Tensions would rise to new heights the following day, however, when our hungry, frustrated college student learned that his apartment complex had completely cleaned out his well-stocked fridge and freezer over the break.
I was not happy about that! An angry call to management didn't help.
Um...welcome back to school, Caleb? Hope the rest of the semester goes more smoothly.
