Pink Flamingos Blog

The Adventures of Getting Our Luggage to Puerto Rico

Remember the days when going to the airport was a relaxing environment where you didn’t have as many restrictions on your luggage, you didn’t have to undress when you went through Security, and your liquids did not require a size limit and their very own Ziploc bag.

Well, I guess the airport was never a relaxing environment, but it was definitely not as complicated to fly.

This story is about our very first excursion off the Continental US to the sunny, tropical paradise of Puerto Rico. Actually, this is about getting our luggage there…yes, the entire sound and lighting system. What’s the big deal…send it on a cargo plane or boat?

I guess if you were Bruce Springsteen you could afford to do that, but a small band from New Mexico…..so, we thought we’d try sending it the usual route by passenger airline carrier.

Our drummer, Chris, was in charge of organizing the “luggage”…you know…microphones, costumes, instruments, monitors, mains, par cans, cables, stands, drums, tuba, banjo, etc…..everything you could possibly need for two weeks at the beach….except clothes, bathing suits, sun block, etc. We didn’t have enough space for people to take personal bags, so if you wanted that pair of underwear to go well you just had to roll it up and put in the bell of your sax.

We get to the airport with 84 pieces of luggage. Every single one made to the airline’s specs and weight restrictions. You remember the good old days when you could check 3 pieces per person with no charge. We arrive at the ticket counter with our mound of stuff and as you can imagine they were not too happy to see us. In fact, the manager came out and said that we couldn’t fly with all that stuff.

Unbeknown to me at the time I had a critical part in making it happen. I was 14 years old and just standing around while Dan (guitar player), John (bass player), and Glenna (singer) tried to convince the manager to let us fly with all of our equipment. She noticed that I was hearing impaired….what a coincidence her kid was hearing impaired too. Next thing you know she and my Mom (Glenna) are talking about hearing impaired kids and our luggage is being tagged and put on the conveyor belt.

We had been through security, boarded the plane, and were in our seats waiting for the usual “Please put your tray tables and seats in their upright position in preparation for take off…”

Instead we hear the pilot clear his throat…a little embarrassed….”Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be delayed for a few moments as we are overweight and need to take some of the “luggage” off the plane.”

The ones of us sitting by the window looked on in despair as they started taking our equipment off the plane one by one. We took off not knowing what made it and what didn’t. In the end luck was on our side as the rest of the equipment made it on the next flight to San Juan.

Everything arrived in time for us to do our first performance.

This only tells you how we got our equipment there. There is a whole other story about our two weeks in Puerto Rico. Stay Tuned.

This is the beginning of our blog section called - The Adventures of a 12 year old on the Road. Or something like that.
We're just getting our footing in this blog and this is our test run...
Anyway, Olivia wrote it looking back on when she first joined up with The Pink Flamingos...

The Big O in 91...

Olivia, The Big O in 2010...

"The Official Band of The Inc 500!"- Inc Magazine

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"The Official Band of The Inc 500!"- Inc Magazine

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800-700-3898