The Clown on my Flight

Two years ago I was supposed to go to Costa Rica but because of work I had to skip the trip.  So in December of '09 I got a message that I had two months to book a flight with my $650 credit.  Which was a nightmare in itself.  Spirit Airlines has to be the most ridiculous airline I have ever flown.  They charge you for everything but oxygen.  Don't fly Spirit if you can avoid it.

After about three months of trying to figure out who could go with me to the Bahamas my Dad, my Step-Mom, and my little sister agreed to come with me.  I was a bit skeptical because I had not traveled with them since I was in the 8th grade.  All in all a successful trip!  A few minor annoyances, a room mix up, my dad snores like a train, and my little sister had a teenager 'tude moment.  I'm sure that I was really annoying too since I can be pretty bossy.  But those tiny things seemed like nothing compared to going Jet Skiing, Swimming with Dolphins, Running into the water at night, getting grillz, and spending time with my little sister. 

The weirdest part of my trip was actually on my way home.  There was a mix up in seating and a tall lanky man had to be moved to the middle seat next to me so that a woman and child could sit together.  He made a spectacle getting from the middle seat of row 10 to row 9 due entirely to his overstuffed black duffel bag.  When the flight attendant said, "Sir would you like me to put that in the overhead bin for you?"  He said, "No I want to keep it near me."  A man with an affinity for his bag and overly large legs, means zero leg room for me.  It was tempting to offer the aisle seat to lanky but the window seat guy was large, irritable, and quite grumpy and I wanted none of that.

Lanky took a good 5minutes to get settled in and spent the majority of that time trying to get his black duffel under the tiny Spirit seats.  After he was done I let out a slight "whooo" sigh and thus began my conversation with lanky.  He turned and with gusto in his voice said, "I know it's a huge bag!  What's your name?" Turns out he was quite the Chatty Guy.  He asked me what I did, how my trip was, and regular flight conversation questions. Then I returned the line of questioning but we only got to the first question because he said that he was an animal trainer.  Even Grumpy in the window seat was now intrigued and he got into the conversation and into a better attitude.  We were asking all kinds of questions about training animals.  Then I asked the next logical question, "What kind of animals do you own?"  Then Lanky said, "Oh, mainly large animals, I can show you a few small ones."  Double take.  Did he really just say "show?"  I thought there was no way he really said show but he began to huff and puff trying to get the black duffel out.  I feel my body temperature rise and I start to panic a little bit.  This guy is a bit odd and now he wants to show us his pets?  Grumpy tried to tell him it wasn't necessary, I was getting a bit squeamish and said "Maybe we shouldn't do this on a plane."  Then I hear some rattling and moving in this box he started to remove from his bag and I'm about to scream.  Lanky says "Come on you two where is your sense of adventure?"  Grumpy tries to tell him that it is probably against airline policy to have pets on the flight.  I unbuckled my seat belt.  Grumpy was pressed against the window and was starting to gradually raise his voice as Lanky opened the box!

Snakes exploded out of the box!  Colorful fake snakes with springs in them to be exact.  Grumpy shouted like a little kid and I covered my face with my arms.  The trick didn't go over well at all.  Grumpy was now extra grumpy especially because people were laughing all around us.  I'm not sure if Lanky really was an animal trainer but he definitely was a clown.







If you want to play this trick on anyone he did let me know you can find these snakes on Amazon.