Our Flight Left. We Did Not.

A missed flight is annoying. Watching your flight take off without you while you’re still trapped on another plane is a special kind of pain.

We’re recording Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt After Dark in real time while driving from Boston to Portland, Maine, running on fumes and trying to stay awake. The travel “magic” starts with a short Santa Rosa to Seattle hop that turns into a delay marathon: instrument issues, fog, circling terminals, and the slow realization that our connection is gone. You’ll hear the exact moment the anxiety spikes, then drops, when we finally accept we can’t control it and decide to treat the chaos as information instead of a personal curse.

From there, it turns into a practical playbook for flight delays and missed connections. We talk about rebooking the second you have cell service, why being genuinely kind to airline customer service can change outcomes, and the sprint that lands us the last two seats. We also get honest about travel anxiety, why we feel calmer up front, how we choose seats, and why keeping eyes on flight attendants weirdly helps when turbulence hits.

Then it’s the human stuff: a five-hour Sea-Tac layover full of airport food, new sunglasses, a seat swap with a stranger, and a surprise comeback from the elusive cheese plate. We close out still on the road, juggling hotel check-in worries, rental car luck, and toll booth confusion, plus a heartfelt plug for Thursday Murder Club.

If you’ve ever been delayed, rebooked mid-meltdown, or tried to stay funny while exhausted, this one will feel familiar. Subscribe, share it with your favorite travel buddy, and leave a review so more anxious travelers can find us.

Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt is about moving through life after loss without turning it into a whole identity—or pretending it’s not there. It’s two women traveling, eating, finding mildly chaotic situations, and narrating with humor that’s just dark enough to tell you they’ve been through something. The “scavenger hunt” isn’t literal. It’s the ongoing practice of noticing what’s still good, still funny, still meaningful…even when you don't feel like laughing.

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Transcript

After-Dark Recording On The Road

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I think we're recording. Are we? We're recording. Alright! Welcome to Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt. After dark. Unhinged and unplugged. And very early in the morning. Slash very late at night. Coming to you from Boston. What up, Boston? Currently, but we're on our way to Portland. Yeah. We're driving right now from Boston, Malls, Portland, Maine. It is local time, 1.45 a.m. We had some major travel magic today. A little bit of a snafu from Sonoma County to Seattle, which is an hour and a half flight. Let's just tell them what happened. All right. It started off around 7. Wait, no, 6.30. We got on the plane at 6.30 this morning. We sat down. Got up at 5. We were very diligent about being there on time. We were in the airport. Nobody wants to miss their flight. We were in the airport at 6.04, which in Sonoma County, you can get there only an hour early, and you still have time to get a Bailey's a coffee. Which we did. Yeah. And then we got on the plane, and there were some instrument issues. They had to call a mechanic. Right. They said it was just like a computer reset, but that the pilots couldn't do it, so they had to call ye old mechanic. And he got there at 7.15 and they said just a few minutes. And then at like 7.40, they said, okay, we're ready to go. And then they said, Oh, wait, Seattle is having a fog, a fog incident. Ruhro, we're gonna sit here for another hour. Yeah, they said we couldn't take off until 8. So Christmas and I had an hour

Tarmac Delays And The Domino Effect

SPEAKER_00 1:48

and 45 minutes to get from our landing to our next takeoff. And we had to get our bags right now. It wasn't a connecting flight because the way we booked it, we originally weren't flying together. It was the whole thing. That's not important. The important part is we have It is important though, because we learned elicitation and we need to share with anybody who wants to listen to this. That's true. Just well, well, I don't know. It kind of worked out. Uh yeah. It I mean, if we had if it wasn't if if our bags were on a connecting flight, our bags would have just been in Boston five hours before us. Waiting for us, hopefully. Or no, wait, they would have been on the plane with us. Um, yeah, it's a little late. I mean it's a little early. Or what like basically what happened is we sat in Santa Rosa for an hour or and a half on the tarmac, and then we flew out. It was fine, pretty inconsequential. The Stuart guy was cool. Lovely. He gave us a we didn't even ask him. He was like, Here, have him on Mosley. This looks like you need it. Which begs the question, what did we look like? I don't think we were too serious. I think we just you could see the stress level rising. We were strategizing pretty hard at that point. That's true. You were like, okay, here's what you're gonna do. I'm gonna get off the plane, I'm gonna go to baggage plane, I'm gonna get our bags. You take our uh go to print the bags. Print the bags, tell somebody we're on our way, we have pre-check, we're running. Tell them not to leave without us because it was gonna be tight. So tight. So we finally like a virgin. Woohoo! So we we land, we got there, we got to Seattle finally, and and we touched down. It was a good landing. I was proud of our pilot. He did a great job. The pilot was amazing, and he did keep using the entire crew, it was great. They were fantastic. We were in Alaska, by the way. Big fan of Alaska Airlines, even though they had some issues. It was not their fault. They said it was CTAC, which I buy because everybody there was having a hard time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think what's going on in Seattle today. We're not sure. Uh, but you know, at this point, we're like really wondering if we're gonna make our our flight. It was gonna be real, real tight. Uh-huh. And then we start circling the terminals and we keep like just doing lip dealers. Doing laps. Yeah. The pilot says, uh, yeah, hey, sorry guys, I'm not really sure what's going on. We're gonna take another lap here. And we keep driving by the plane that we're supposed to be on. We can see because we know what gate it's taking off from. So we see it, and we're like, oh, we keep passing by gate N1. Yep, there's our plane that we're supposed to be on it. And then we got to see it take all the way. We just sat there. Bye. But it was an interesting like study in psychology because we were talking about this, we were so we were having we were both kind of freaking out. The anxiety level was high. Real high. Not with each other, but just but only only until we knew there was no way that we could control it anymore. Yeah, and then we were well once we realized it was completely out of our hands and we weren't gonna make it. But it was come right. Once we knew there was no hope of us running fast enough or getting to the gate fast enough, once we knew that that fucker was gonzo, then we were like, oh well, welcome to our non-consensual five-hour layover at CTAC. Yep. Um, and we're, I'm convinced something's slowing down up here. What's happening? We've got some slowdown on the freeway. We are on um 95 north right now, headed towards Portland. There's a cop up there. What's happening? Uh doesn't look like a lot of slowage. Okay, okay. All right. Anyway, just being conscious of what's happening on the map here. Yeah. Anyway.

Watching The Plane Leave Without Us

SPEAKER_00 5:33

So maybe they just want us to slow down. Oh, someone's getting yellow because they want you to slow down. Because someone got us, don't worry. Anyway, um, where were we? Um that this didn't happen to us. Uh, yes, yes. We decide that this is how you have to look at this kind of thing. Yeah, this is part of the travel magic. Someone somewhere in the universe is looking out for us. Yep. And if we had made that flight, who knows what would have happened. Could have been terrible. We could have gotten in a like car crash. We don't know if that plane ever landed. We don't look. No, we could have like tripped getting on that plane and knocked out a front tooth. Yeah. Something I'm sure that this was happening for us, not to us. This didn't happen to us. This was happening for us. This is where Christmas's fitness really came in clutch. So we land, we finally, okay, this two hour, this what, an hour and a half flight turned into a five-hour flight from Santa Rosa to Seattle. Actually, it was a five-star flight. I just did the map map. You did the the math in my head. And yes, then, which is insane now that you say it. Yeah. Five hours. It took us five hours to get from Santa Rosa to Seattle. And we did eventually get off the plane. We did. Um, which was lovely because

Reframing Chaos As Travel Magic

SPEAKER_00 6:50

I had to pee real bad at that point. Yeah. And um, they wouldn't let us up, they wouldn't let us grab, they wouldn't let us do anything. Okay, wait, T. Before that, when I knew we weren't going to make our flight, but we were sitting on the ground in Seattle. So I did have cell service. I immediately went on the Alaska app and was like, when's the next flight and what seats are available on said flight? And we spoiler alert, Christmas will not fly coach. Oh my god! No, I'm with you. I love how she blames me. I'm with you. I I also on a flight like I'm spoiled, Rod. It's terrible. We both are. Now that I've done it, I'm I'm a I'm a terrible business class whore. Yeah. It's just there's and Kara and I are both kind of nervous flyers. Yeah. And I don't know why. I know it doesn't make sense. The logic in me is like, this is stupid, but I am less scared in first class. Well, it's less bumpy. Which no, over the wings. Over the wings is the right over the wings. I can tell you that the back of the plane is the worst. Yeah, no, the tail is the most. Oh, right directly over the wings is the least. Okay, well, I'm

Rebooking Fast And Flying Less Scared

SPEAKER_00 8:05

still not sitting there because Christmas, you have turned me on to this concept of keeping eyes on flight attendants. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the farther, like the front, I was not firmly convinced until today the front row is the way to go. The front row. Because I always I like to stash my bag in front. Second row is fine, like yeah, but you have to be on the right hand side so you can see the flight attendant. But you were kind of against front row, and I was like, no, front row is actually okay. No, you're right. You also get to kick your legs way up on that wall. Feet up is is the jam. So we were um oh god, where was I? I'm lost. Uh things Oh, Christmas saving the day by looking for the Oh yeah, let's talk more about me saving the day. Christmas saves the day all the time, every time, because she's This isn't it? This is not true, but I did it is true. This was a clutch move today. She was like, okay, I'll give myself this one. I have to look up these new flights. This me being you. Okay. I have to look up what's happening next because we need to get there. Uh, we don't really want to spend the night in Seattle. Also, will you remind me? This is probably too much information, but I feel like I'm getting a zit on my eyebrow, which is so weird. Will you remind me to pop it when we get to the hotel? Sure. Okay, great. Carry on. I will try. It's very late. I know. If I don't, it's fine. It's just bugging me. Yeah, if you know us at all, we're in bed by oh, 8:30. Yeah. I like an early bedtime. To be fair. To be fair. It's 2 a.m. East Coast, so it's really only like 11 back then. Yeah. Which is still too late. Which is why I can actually handle this drive. Yeah. Functioning because if it was actually 2 a.m. our time, we would be at a hotel in Boston, probably. No, no. We would just power through? I would not stay in Boston. That place is too scary at night. I've never been there. Oh my god, you're such a baby. Yeah, such a fucking place. Whatever. We could find a very nice hotel. I'm sure. I'm sure we could, but and we don't even have a well first let's run over this time. That's true. We don't. We have we'll get there. We'll get there. So at this point in the story, at this juncture in our tale. You had to pee. I had to pee real bad. That's all I was concerned about. They finally let us off a fucking plane. And everybody was kind of freaking out, including the flight attendants who were supposed to be on another flight to work. And I guess Well, back home or no, no, they were supposed to be on another flight. Okay. They were they were trying they were serving on another flight. Anyway. I don't know how flight attendant stuff works. That's so weird. You just go from city, like I guess. Yeah. I don't know. Those people are so brave. Christmas had the bright idea to ask for where is Alaska customer service? And they told us, and she ran. Ran. I s I peed. I t I peed. I took care of myself. She took care of both of us while I was taking the. I ran and I was like, it's by Seagate 10, just find me here. Ran to customer service, got in line, and uh texted me and said, Hey, here's where it is, come find me. So I found her, we got in line, or I found her in line. Um and and and I told Christine, lovely Christine, hey, this is Kipping the hat to Christine. Kipping the hat to Christine. Absolutely. Shooting firecrackers in the air for Christine. I said, we were on an a one of your flights that was two and a half hours late. We totally understand things happen. I did just look and saw that the next flight out is at four o'clock, and there are two seats left in first class, and we would like

The Customer Service Sprint That Works

SPEAKER_00 11:40

those peas. And she said, Let me see what I can do. And I said, I totally believe in you. It's cool. We understand. You gotta be really nice in these situations because that's when people give you things. And she said, Here you go, no problem. And then the guy behind us pulled up to the counter beside us and talked to the guy next to us, the other helper guy. Sorry, sir. He wanted to get on the same flight as us in first class, and there were no seats left because we just took the So if Christmas had not ran the way she ran, we would not have ended up even remotely near one another. No, we would have both yeah, I would have flown, I would have flown coach with you. I would too. No problem. We would have been fine. It would be great. Wouldn't have been as great, but wouldn't have been as great. But we also were in separate parts of the cabin and we had this whole plan. Yeah. We've been waiting weeks and weeks to watch the Thursday Murder Club Netflix movie. Tip of that. Together together. We wanted to watch it together. Because we read all the books on the flight. Big fans. I downloaded it on my tablet. We were gonna watch together. And I didn't even bring, I didn't bring an iPad, I didn't bring a computer, I didn't bring anything because Kara had downloaded all the things. Yep. And we were just gonna watch it on her shit. Because we were sitting together, our seats were together. Yeah when we got booked on the later flight, which we spent an extra five hours in Seattle hanging out. Five hour hangout in Seattle? I got new sunglasses. I forgot my sunglasses in my car back in Santa Rosa. So I got some new sunglasses. Sunglass Hut, hit up skillet. I had a great burger. Kara had chili. How were your chili chilies? They were okay. Okay. They were just okay. But the eggs was fried like perfect to perfection. I needed some protein. It was great. Okay. That was what, one o'clock? That was our first thing we ate that day, basically. That was too late for that. Uh no, I was short. I had to try short bread. That was fantastic. Oh, I had some uh some salt and vinegar chips. I had salt and vinegar chips. Really health food. We love it and living the healthy life out here. So anyway, we spend five hours in Seattle. When we get when we finally get on this next flight, we're assigned to completely different areas. Uh so three rows apart. Three rows apart. So not I mean crazy, but not together. But really hard to watch a movie together. It would have been. Yes. Four rows apart. And uh Christmas sat down and we had this whole strategy where we were gonna I was gonna try to talk to the single person sitting beside me and see if they'd be willing to change. But as soon as Christmas sat down next to this lovely young man from Boston, um, he seemed really interested in talking to her. And so she batted her eyelashes at him. Are you traveling alone? And so she she immediately turns around, she goes, get out of your chair, come up here. We're like she he was very so cool about it. And then he just fell he fell asleep anyways. Yeah, he just wanted to sleep. He wanted to nap. He didn't want to listen to our bullshit, which is great. Nope. So we ended up getting to sit together, it all worked

Layover Food And A Seat Swap Save

SPEAKER_00 14:50

out. It was great. The stewardesses the or the flight attendant gals were so nice. They even found us a cheese plate. Yeah. We did not get to reserve our cheese plate. Oh, we had pre-ordered food for our flight that we missed. And then when we sat down, we asked if they still had the cheese plate, and she said, Oh no, you have to pre-order that. And we were like, We did, but not all. Somebody else got to eat our cheese plate. She said it was probably one of the uh flight attendants, and I was like, Well, that's great. That's a that's no ball. I would have hoped that somebody cool got it. Somebody ate the cheese plate. Yeah. Mobit didn't go to waste. Yeah. It was a good cheese plate. So she did. She found us a cheese plate. Yep. She gave us um lots of food and snacks, and there were no like kind of fresh-ish vegetarian options. So she even She brought us carrots into cheese. She brought us basically like all the sides that we wanted. Yeah, it was perfect. I I had a bowl of arugula. Karen didn't really notice that it was actually a salad, and there was a packet of dressing underneath it. She thought it was just a bowl of arugula dry. I mean, I love a bowl of arugula. It was peppery, it was fantastic. You raw dog that whole bowl. It really needed some salad depth. So the dressing was good. I ate it with the dressing, which I well, hey, different strength promotes. Yeah. Um, it was great. The carrots were great. It didn't need dressing, but whatever. It was the carrots. It was great. So flight was an event. Well, there was some serious turbulence when we took off, but the captain had warned us. He said it's gonna be bumpy on the way out. I mean, everybody probably doesn't really want to play by play of this whole thing, right? Like, were we just rambling at this point? Obviously, yes, but who cares? Do we do this for other people? No, we did this for Bonnie. We do this for the three. We do this for us and for Ma. And because we have to stay awake for the next, oh, I don't know, 58 miles to Portland. Uh, one hour and one minute. Yeah, we have to. Oh, Jesus Christ. So we won't get to the hotel until 3.02 and we're gonna have to. So we will be falling asleep probably around 4 a.m., I'm guessing. An hour after we I will be asleep before that. Okay, well 330. We'll just see about that. We'll see how long it takes the old AC Portlet to check us in. Allegedly, they're holding our room for us. We'll see what happens. They will, and they have, and they are. Christmas has a lot of faith. I do. Which is probably I shouldn't, because we had to change some dates with the old AC, and Kara did not subscribe to the Catch More Flies with Honey. I was not having my best day. Did you call her a bitch? No. I said, well, that fucking sucks and you fucking suck.

unknown 17:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Much better. Much better. Much better. Maybe not my finest moment, but you know what? I'm a little bit tired of just censoring myself all the fucking time. Yeah. And you know what? Guess what? I'm not sorry. Okay. That policy fucking sucks. Well, when they sprinkle bed bugs in our room for funsies. Right, right. Okay, yes. Could I have handled that better? Yes. But also, I didn't. Okay, that was terrible. They're gonna be like, you get the loudest room of all time. I am sorry. It's gonna be fine. It'll be fine. Um yeah, so

Hotel Stress Rental Car Luck Toll Panic

SPEAKER_00 18:17

that's where we're at. We are on the freeway, but we got our rental car and they said they didn't have a Tahoe. Christmas wanted a Tahoe because that's what she's familiar driving. That's what I drive at home. And they said, sorry, we don't have any Tahoes. And we said, that's cool. An expedition, that would be fine also. Yeah. And then the dude pulls up in a Tahoe, a black Tahoe, just like you drive. And it was just a cherry on the cake of the day. It really was. I was like, I know where all the buttons are. Oh and Thursday Murder Club is great. Watch it. Yeah, yeah. Watch the movie on the some differences from the book, as there usually is, but thoroughly enjoyed, cried. Oh, so did I, yeah. The casting was fantastic. Couldn't have been better. Couldn't have been better. Uh yeah, huge fan. We should probably publish that episode where we talked about that. I thought we already published that one. Nope. Where we talked about the one we recorded at the cabin? We never published that. It's only it's only in um Are you sure? Patreon. Uh anyway, for our many, many Patreon. All of our yeah, all our patrons. What are we doing? I don't know cash, no cash, just keep going. Straight? Yep, just keep going. I don't know what's happening. Do not stop. Just keep going. Okay. I don't know what's happening. There's a toll situation, but I also heard that you aren't supposed to stop. They don't take cash. Okay. I'm so confused right now. Do not stop. 65. Keep going. Oh, I'm not. Um ET pass? I don't have that. We're gonna just have to get mailed. Uh I think we're gonna you know what happens if you go through like the automatic toll thing. They throw you in jail. No, they sent you a bill in the mail. Oh, but for like $12, and you mail it in. More than happy to pay that. Yeah. Just just get us there. That's all I'm asking. Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna turn this off. Okay. Bye everyone. Bye. And then they got arrested and thrown in jail for not.