Kara and Nate Buchanan fly for the first time in nine months after their van's pipes burst. Their flight to Las Vegas carried only 36 of 175 possible passengers, with strategic spacing and frequent mask reminders replacing the usual in-flight service.
April 8, 2020
36 passengers out of 175 possible seats
They decided to fly 'yesterday at 10am' and deliberated from 10am to 10pm (about 12 hours)
We're back. It has been a crazy 24 hours. We were hoping to get back on airplanes in 2021, but we did not think it would be this soon.
Can't believe we're doing this.
This is great.
Like, that's why I cut it up before Southwest air. It's like 472.
So we've been working for the last month to get some videos lined up in Nevada. A couple days ago, I was getting the van ready to go and turned on the water to clean out the sink and it just went everywhere. Apparently while the van was sitting at my parents house, the pipes froze and burst.
The saga continues.
All right, so this is post cleanup.
We've got the sink out.
I tried to fix it with that magic tape that they show on tv, but flex tape is super strong. No luck. And we still have water leaking all over the floor. It's wet under here. I'm not sure where that water is coming from. This, the sink is the only place that we know we have a water leak. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were some pipes burst in the back of the van as well.
So long story short, we decided instead of driving a broken van across the country, it was time to come back to the airport for the first time in nine months.
All right, I did it.
I booked it.
And we leave in eight hours.
This is crazy.
It's crazy just how comfortable we got living with more stuff in the van. I used this suitcase for a hundred countries and all four seasons. And now it feels like a challenge to pack for one one trip. To having to choose between GoPro mounts, leaving extra batteries, backup microphones. We just had. We had all this extra stuff that we didn't use for four years but now feels essential.
All right, I did forget how much this bag.
Always.
This feels so weird.
Wow, new departure boards.
It's changed so much since we've been here.
Well, it definitely looks quieter than usual. I didn't know what to expect on social media. I feel like I've seen packed airports.
And completely empty airports.
Wow.
Back in an airport.
Thanks for the ride.
Let's do this.
Wow. We're back.
What do we do?
Thank you very much.
Thank you. All right.
So far, so good. The airport feels pretty empty. I mean, it's not a ghost town, but it's also not crowded.
I think it feels more normal than.
I thought it would. This was something sitting at home that I built up in my head. So much. Like coming to the airport just seemed completely crazy. But then you get here and you realize that, like, people work here every day and not the only ones crazy enough to be flying.
It's still so weird.
This is not a decision that we've taken lightly at all. I felt physically sick yesterday trying to decide if it was time to come to the airport.
We both did.
We made the decision to fly yesterday at 10am and we spent from 10am to 10pm trying to decide if we had made the right decision.
We went back and forth a thousand times. Like, I think I got a gray hair yesterday.
I've already got plenty of those.
I have been dreaming of the day that we could get back on an airplane ever since we came home in April. But this is definitely not how I pictured our first flight. It's still a super weird time to be flying, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't a little bit excited. So here we go. Let's see what it's like to fly domestically in 2021.
I feel a lot of pressure to accurately portray this experience because this isn't us trying to convince anyone that it's the right time to travel, because I think for most people it's not. But we figured since we were flying, we might as well share the experience. And I just really want to do a good job of showing the true picture. And it's a little challenging because if I were to point the camera over here.
You'D think that the airport was completely empty. But if I zoom down this hallway.
It'S just like pockets of people. And so far, they've been pretty easy to avoid.
Our boarding gate is definitely more full than I would like to see it. It's just crazy how in different worlds people live when it comes to the pandemic. Like, people are just choosing to sit close to each other for no reason. Like, there's plenty of room to spread out.
Thank you for doing it.
Our first time boarding a plane since April 8, 2020.
I think our gate had like, two flights together. I don' think there's going to be as many people on this flight as I originally thought.
Can't believe we're doing this.
I was definitely off on how many people I thought were going to be on this flight. There's 36 out of 175 people that could be on this plane. So they're strategically spacing out 12 people every 10 rows for balance on the airplane.
This is so great. We have a seat in the very back of the plane. There's no one within 12 rows.
It's a Direct flight straight to Vegas. We could not ask for a better first experience flying in 2021. All right.
Good evening, Blaise Jean. I received you for just a moment to cross safety future, 1 737-800. There's a safety information card located at C5, the literature market in front of you.
But to follow.
Smiling under this mask, if you can't tell, cannot believe we're back on an airplane.
Clap the end of this one. You're only here in Southwest Airwall, so I'm your first. Welcome to Las Vegas. Come back, visit again, home soon, tell all your friends you had a great time, and welcome to Las Vegas.
Additionally, please consider giving yourself some space between you and the customers around you while you're exiting the aircraft for a physical.
I think there were three things on this flight that were very different to flying pre pandemic. The first one of those being obviously the amount of people on the flight. Thank you. The second biggest difference is that the only drink that they offered on the entire flight was water, which came in these open glasses, and I'm really thirsty. And third was the extra announcements by the flight attendant, sternly but nicely reminding people to wear their masks for the comfort of others around them.
All in all, it was a very comfortable flight. And it's super weird how normal this already feels.
Welcome to Las Vegas. You get Shake Shack?
No.
Didn't eat my snack on the plane either. Kept these on the whole time.
I felt good.
I haven't done this in a while.
I like it.
We got the windows cracked. It's fresh air flowing in here.
Thank you very much.
Can we also.
All right, home sweet home.
Let's wash our hands so we can touch our face.
We have had these masks on for six.
Hours.
This is all I wanted to do the whole time. This is the best feeling. This is better than taking your bra off at the end of the day.
No lines on my face.
The N95 mask are no joke, but I definitely feel better having it.
This was not a video that we intended on filming, but we felt like we couldn't fly for the first time in nine months and not bring you along for the journey. The first what we consider real video will be published next week. We have some crazy stuff lined up here in Vegas that we cannot wait to share with you. I feel like this channel has kind of gone in seasons. First season was like, Karen Nate's first full year of backpacking travel, and then it was the journey to 100 countries for the next three years. Last year was living in a van and just trying to figure out life. And we're still trying to define this season of our channel, but I think it's going to be really exciting.
