Denouement, a.k.a. the trip home - Chapter 6

Friday, April 22, 2016

Picture it: 2 a.m. my "home" time, getting up and showering, making sure the last things are packed, dressing for the travel. Getting down to the lobby of the hotel about 3 a.m. my "home" time. I have done the "super Spring forward" thing by traveling East. So my eyes *might* be just a little glazed over.

I am an early riser, mind you... I'm up between 4 and 5 a.m. most days. But with the fullness of the weekend and the short sleep? I admit I was kind of sluggish mentally, Tuesday morning early. The desk clerk asked me if I needed a cab, I said, "I have a van coming." I sat down to wait, pulling out the paperwork for the van driver.

On my "home" time, it would have been 3:10 a.m. when the white van pulled up in front of the hotel and the driver got out and tapped on the door, wagged his fingers at me. I went out the door, he put my bag in the back of the van, and opened the door.

"That's odd", a sluggish part of my brain thought. "The van driver on the way in asked if I was me, verified my identity and wanted the voucher." I shrugged and buckled in. Driver asks, "Where are we going today?"

The sluggish brain does another "That's odd... the driver on the way in already knew where I was going..." But I automatically answer, "Logan" and the airline name. While my sluggish brain is still musing on the oddity, a few blocks later, the meter registers on me. I have purloined someone else's taxi!

What to do? I still have a short schedule, I need to get there in time for a 6 a.m. (Boston time) flight. So I sit back and accept that I'm going to pay for a taxi ride and the shuttle ride I already paid for would go by the wayside. And the poor person whose cab that was? Hope they either hook up with the shared van in my place or somehow manage to get where they need to be, too!

However, this kind of explains the kind of gaffe that can happen when you are NOT paying attention! Had it NOT been a legitimate taxi? You could write novels about kidnappings! Wake up, already, Barb!

Anyway, got to the airport, looked at my phone: missed call. The van driver. I called him back, explained what happened, "no problem," says he. Apparently these things happen. It's Marathon weekend in Boston.

Mistake number 2 from the sluggish brain... not noticing the TSA pre-checked icon on my electronic boarding pass. I could have gone through a shorter line. But no, glassy eyed, I stood through the long one. At least they didn't make me take off my shoes... the advantage of that little icon.

Got to the gate. Quite a few teal jackets (see MOBYCARP's blogs for the explanation of the significance of teal - this year's color) and also Boston Athletic Association jackets from prior years. The gate agent asks as we are getting ready to board who all ran the marathon on Monday. Several hands went up. She asks all those within the area to give them a round of applause. Then as we started to board, she announced "This is a one-day special... anyone who ran the marathon yesterday may board at any time".

In fact, this is a very practical thing. Marathons take a lot out of the human body. Some of these folks could be pretty stiff!

Food on a funny schedule? Yep. I had an orange standing and waiting to board. I accepted full test coffee on the airplane (small cups), and tomato juice, and even ate the pretzels. I waited for my connecting airport where I had about an hour and a half to seek out my yogurt and a banana to "complete" breakfast.

On to the connecting gate. Since I had time, I walked the 3000 steps from one gate to the other. It felt good to be stretching the legs.

Next mis-adventure, not in my control: they boarded us on the second plane, taxied along, then took a detour to try to "fix" a heating element in a cockpit window. Yikes! Back to the gate. They happen to have an extra plane, at a nearby gate... they move us all. Since it's the same model, we keep same seat assignments, get back on, and on our way we go. Smoothest equipment replacement I've experienced in all my years of travel. Only delayed arrival time by about 38 minutes. And since my destination was "home"... no sweat.

The cats survived. A bit wild, they destroyed a mini-nerf football and knocked down one of my recycle bins since my musical sister's last visit, but no worse for wear. Sis left me notes indicating when (which days) the cats went out and came back in. Prisoner stayed out in a thunderstorm (nothing new there).  Rubia mostly was in. Also expected. 

Ahhh! Travel is wonderful. So is coming home. As I arrived home, it was with a great sense of gratitude.  This trip is going in the "worth it" memory box. It so fits with the things I wrote on the maintenance advantages list. Life is easier at "home weight". It just is. I cannot have this life ease if I go nuts with foodlike substances, or go back to couch potato status. This trip, even though I was not "eventing" myself, reminded me that even to "be there" at the special moments in my family's life... I need to take care of my body. It *is* worth it!

So... here comes today's pitch... let's go out and take care of our bodies on this, the only April 22, 2016 we will ever see! Because we're worth it.

P.S. Happy Earth day (I still kind of grit my teeth when I say that... for me, it's Happy Arbor Day on this date, no matter when Nebraska shifts it to a different date to give me a three-day weekend!)