By LARRI JO STARKEY AND TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON
For some of the youth arriving at the Youth World Cup in Amarillo, it was the start of the adventure. For others, it was the end of a long road.
Kendra James of Lashburn, Saskatchewan, set out from Edmonton, Alberta, at 7 a.m. June 22 with her traveling companion, Jesse Crandall of Ponoka, Alberta, bound for Youth World Cup in Amarillo.
 |
| Members of Team Canada participate in the Parade of Teams during the opening ceremonies Sunday, June 25. |
Kendra and Jesse, both members of Team Canada, hadn’t met before, but they would be getting well-acquainted in the next 36 hours.
From Edmonton, Kendra and Jesse flew to Salt Lake City, where their flight to Houston was delayed a half-hour. By the time they got to Texas, a storm moving across from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had settled in over Houston and begun disrupting flights.
Kendra’s and Jesse’s flight from Houston to Amarillo was one of them.
“First it was delayed to 6:30, then to 7:30,” Kendra said. “It kept moving from gate to gate and between the A and B terminals.”
At 7:30 p.m., the plane that they were supposed to be riding on hadn’t left Baton Rouge, and their flight was delayed until 10 p.m. Then it was cancelled, leaving Kendra and Jesse afoot.
“We were lost Canadian children in the airport,” she said.
Kendra and Jesse got in line to book new tickets, but the earliest flight available was at 9 a.m. June 24 – two days later.
“We wanted to rent a car,” Kendra said, “but we’re 18,” under the age limit for renting autos.
After consultation with panicking parents and team manager Judy Whittingham, Kendra and Jesse booked a flight to Fort Worth. They got a motel room in Houston for the evening and took their first taxi rides.
“It was $30 to the hotel and $30 back to the airport,” Kendra said. “I hadn’t taken a cab before, but apparently they’re fairly expensive.”
The next day, Judy’s husband, Wayne, took their rental car from Amarillo to Fort Worth -- a seven-hour trip -- to pick up Kendra and Jesse.
“Fortunately, we both found it fairly amusing,” Kendra said. “I would have been bawling if I was by myself.”
The Canadian team wasn’t the only one experiencing travel woes. It took almost 48 hours for the 17 Italians to make it to Amarillo.
 |
| Team Italy painted their hair in their country's colors for the parade. |
“We started off in Milan at around 11 in the morning on June 23, and our plane was an hour and a half late,” said Italian team manager Stefania Ugolini. “We made it into Atlanta for our connection, and even though we were only 30 minutes late getting in, we were unable to make our flight to Dallas.”
It took another two hours before the Italians were able to leave the Atlanta airport.
“We arrived in Dallas in the night, so we had to sleep there,” Stefania said.
But that was easier said than done. All of the hotels near the DFW Airport were full.
“We had to make six phone calls before we found a hotel that could take all of us,” she said.
A hotel found, the 17 piled into a bus with their 34 pieces of luggage.
“It was quite a sight,” Stefania said with a laugh.
The next morning, the group woke, ate breakfast and headed back to the hotel. However, it took the rest of the day to get all of them into Amarillo.
“We had to take three different planes because there was not enough room for all of us on one,” Stefania said. “We didn’t all get here until the evening of June 24.”
But the long delay didn’t dampen the Italians’ spirit. During the parade of teams June 25, the members spiked their hair and painted it in the colors of the Italian flag.
“We are just so happy to be here,” Stefania said with a smile.
