Boomer's Journal - Spring break

By Rachel Barduson

For many, winter in Minnesota is just too unbearable to accept without some kind of refuge in a southern state or beach destination outside of the country. Spring break means planning – even if it’s the same destination year after year. During the winter of 2025, I was the arm-chair quarterback of winter travels as my sister and her husband went on their annual Mazatlán get-away. They went on the trip. I stayed home, but kinda went along, getting reports from my comfortable chair next to my cozy fireplace. As usual, with my sister, true life is always stranger than fiction. She has once again supplied me with yet another story for this column. Why write a novel based on fiction when the real entertainment from my arm-chair seems to always be provided by my sister? What unfolds in the next few paragraphs is my version of telling her story – written in diary form.

Dear Diary: I have booked our annual trip to Mazatlán, Mexico. We’ve gone for more than 30 years so we know where we are going, where we are staying, and how we will get there. Instead of booking the cheapest room I can find and then arriving at our destination, only to spend our first day at the front desk asking for an upgrade, I decided we finally deserve the “top of the line” ocean-front room at the get-go. We will have the room of our dreams.  I cannot wait to walk the beach, soak up the sun, and enjoy some great food. Everything is planned. This trip will be smooth as silk.

Day 1: We are heading to Minneapolis a day early to beat the blizzard. I thought we got an early enough start, but we drove right into the eye of the storm. It was a white-knuckle trip. It took longer than normal to get there, but we made it. The hotel didn’t have any parking spaces left for Park-n-Fly so I guess we will drive to the airport in the morning. We were exhausted so we went to bed early. We know we better get to the airport a little early because of the weather – we’re scheduled for an 11 a.m. flight departure.

Day 2: We got up around 4 a.m. because neither of us slept. We could have just as well gotten up at midnight. We drove to the airport parking ramp, but with no available open spaces, we ended up on the roof of the ramp. As it snows some more, we will deal with clearing off our vehicle when we get back.  I’m so glad we got through security for international flights fairly easily and everything seems okay for our departure. We got to Gate 7 at 10 a.m. for our 11 a.m. departure. I called my sister to let her know we are at our gate. We shouldn’t have long to wait.

Then I saw our plane disappear! Our flight got switched. We now are to depart at 2:30 after they de-ice a new plane. I called my sister. After sitting at Gate 7 for hours, we were told we had to go to a different gate.

Peter gives an adjustment to the back of my brother-in-law, Andy. Contributed photo

We are finally boarded (I called Rachel to let her know). After about an hour sitting in the plane, they started to de-ice it. At least we are on the tarmac and in line to take off. My hips already hurt; or is it my sciatica? We have no wiggle room. We haven’t slept since leaving home yesterday.  We drove a day early IN a blizzard so we wouldn’t miss our morning flight, our flight was changed to a later time and we still haven’t left Minnesota and it’s almost 3 o’clock in the afternoon. I have  a window seat and I hope no one will be in the middle seat, or that I won’t have to make small talk with anyone. Andy has an aisle seat.

Finally, after what seems like hours, we take off. 

Mid-flight – about two hours into the flight – the pilot comes on the intercom and announces that we will be doing a security stop in El Paso, Texas. As soon as we land in El Paso, we are surrounded by police cars and the FBI. There has been a security breach on the plane. As we sit in our seats, all of the luggage is taken off of the plane and spread out on the tarmac. The passengers are getting restless (to say it mildly). Dogs search the luggage contents as we watch from the plane – for two hours. Finally, each of us is allowed to get off of the plane, one at a time, for individual interrogation.

We found out that a message had been written on the mirror of one of the bathrooms. The message was written in lipstick (or something that looked like lipstick). The message said, “You will all die.”

Once we were escorted off of the plane – one by one – we were interviewed and then loaded onto one of three buses parked on the tarmac. Since the crew had fatigue by exceeding the amount of time allowed to continue on this flight, we would have to wait for a new plane, a new flight, and a new flight crew to arrive from Minneapolis. We were given Uber passes in order to get to a hotel for a one-night stay. We were given vouchers for the hotel, along with a food voucher as well. We were told to use our Uber app to get to where we wanted to stay and where we would go to eat.

What’s an Uber pass? I learned that I could get my Uber pass from the Uber app on my cell phone. Well, I certainly didn’t have Uber app on MY phone. Now what?

Remember when I said I took a window seat with the hopes that if someone is sitting in the middle seat that they wouldn’t think they needed to do “small talk” with me? Well, I take that back, and thank goodness it’s a small world after all. Sitting next to me on the plane was a gal named Lisa and she knew exactly what an Uber app is. Even more shocking to me than that was the fact that she had heard of Ashby, Minn. What are the odds I would be sitting beside someone who knows there’s a town named Ashby? She immediately became my new best friend. She said she would help us with the Uber app situation. Lisa and her husband, Peter, who is a chiropractor, sat next to us on the bus. In fact, they stayed at the same hotel as us.

We sat in the bus, on the tarmac, at the main terminal of the El Paso airport until 7 p.m. And yes, we are hungry, we are not happy. Actually, we are just plain mad.

By 10 p.m. we were at a hotel, had eaten, and our spirits were as good as they could be under the circumstances. We can finally just go to bed.

Day 3: We got up early because we all hoped that the earlier we were up the earlier we could leave. At 8:30 a.m. the weather was perfect. It was a clear sky and a perfect day to fly to Mazatlán. I called my sister to update her on our vacation experiences up to this point. She was very happy to be at home in Minnesota.

At 11 a.m. we found out that our crew from Minneapolis had missed their connecting flight to El Paso. At 4 p.m. we were shipped back to the hotel. We would spend our second night in El Paso.

Day 4: Again, we were up early. We spent the day at the hotel, staring out the window, waiting for our flight crew. The weather seemed okay (not Mazatlán – but also not a blizzard in Minnesota). At about 3 o’clock a dust storm rolled in. We are now locked in at El Paso because of weather. We will spend our third night in El Paso.

Day 5: Everyone is packed up and waiting in the hotel lobby – early. We’re trying to be optimistic. Andy and I have a two-week vacation planned, but what about the people who have planned a seven-day stay in Mazatlán? I feel so bad for them – they’ve already lost three days.

We finally got out of El Paso at 2 p.m. and we arrived in Mazatlán at about 4:30. As we had been waiting all of this time, having to sit and wait, lug our bags and carry our luggage, Andy’s back had “gone out.” This is a very painful situation. He needed to lay down as soon as possible.

Right away we find out that there has been a “mix up” with our room and we were not given the room I had specifically and carefully booked for this stay. This was not a good day to give me this information. I marched right down to reception to have a little “discussion.” It took some time, but – by that night we finally got the right room, the “top of the line” ocean-front that I had originally and intentionally booked. We could walk out of our hotel room door and be on the beach. I could feel the sand between my toes. I needed to go on a long walk.

There was only one more problem, with Andy’s back “out” he couldn’t get out of bed. We were hungry – but he couldn’t go with me to get something to eat. I got him some soup. I walked to a restaurant and ordered seafood. I should’ve known better.

My stomach can’t handle seafood. I got sick. I also hadn’t noticed that Lisa had sent me a text warning me that she had received a message warning people not to order the seafood. I found out too late.

Day 6: We learned that most everyone who only had a one-week stay booked in Mazatlán had decided to just go home. They booked new flights back to Minneapolis as soon as they could. Andy was able to eat some breakfast, but went right back to bed. I was too sick with food poisoning to eat.

During the past few days of our “spring break,” we have had the opportunity to visit with Lisa and Peter some more. Through conversation, we found out that Peter grew up on the same farm that Andy’s mom, Edith, had grown up on. Not only that, while going to school in Evansville, his favorite teacher was Mrs. Lang, Andy’s mom. Six degrees of separation! On this first “official” afternoon in Mazatlán, after Peter got back from deep-sea fishing, he offered to give Andy an adjustment on his back.

Andy laid on a picnic table outside of our room and Peter gave him an “adjustment.” People who saw this thought that Peter was offering free chiropractic adjustments and suddenly a line for his services began to form. We quickly disbursed the crowd. I went for a walk on the beach. I went to the pool – even though I wasn’t feeling all that great. Andy went back to bed in our room. He never got to the pool or the beach.

We decided we were going home.

Day 7: Yes, we were going home. We NEEDED to go home. We had “had enough.” I made more than one airline call, booked our flight, and we got to the airport on time, and our flight left on time.

Before we left Mazatlán, we wanted Lisa and Peter to have the “top of the line” ocean-front room we would no longer need – and I wanted to make sure that they would not be charged for it. This lovely couple had been our lifesavers on this trip. We had met only a few days ago because of unfortunate circumstances, and they could not have been more gracious in helping us. We are so grateful for them and their help. We wanted to show our appreciation.

We boarded our flight home. We didn’t crash and there were no messages written on the bathroom mirror. We arrived in Minneapolis at 11 p.m. and stayed at Jaxon and Allee’s for the night.

Day 8: We were awake and ready for the last lap of our spring break by 4 a.m. We were at Elden’s in Alexandria at 6 a.m. and home before 9 a.m.

We decided that we would never fly again. Thank goodness for the many years we did have successful trips to our spring break destination.

Dear Diary: We have never been so thankful to get home. We are kissing the ground. Andy recovered. I recovered. It took some time, but we recovered. From here-on-out it’s going to be all about “we’re taking a road-trip baby!”

After we left Mazatlán, Lisa and Peter had a wonderful, well-deserved spring break.