In Transit

Normally I pack days before go anywhere and call this the initial pack. The initial pack is enormous and includes everything I think I might need. It does not include the things I am forgetting. As more time passes, things get added, but mostly things get weeded out.

I returned home on Monday evening and started the initial pack. I had less than 24 hours to get my packing situated for my flight to Arizona. It was agonizing to make those 'do I take this?" decisions in mere hours. Plus I had to do the laundry from when I was in South Carolina so that I could have those clothes available as options as well.

My mom likes to watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette shows and I keep her company some of the time. It was the "Men Tell All" episode full of juicy bits, but I tore myself away during commercial breaks to dutifully weed out some of the 11 shirts and other odds - I was only going to be gone for a week! Mom claims that a tshirt doesn't take up that much space which is true, and I want to be prepared for any occasion, but 11 is too many!

To be continued... It's happy hour at Coyote Joe's Prescott after a busy day at Sultana Cycles.

The next morning I really got to packing. Lightning was totally in the way. She tried to crawl all over my clean clothes stacked on 'her' bed and I had to move her to prevent an overwhelming amount of cat hair. She persisted and eventually climbed in my suitcase. That made me laugh, so I snapped a few photos and moved her again. (Photos forthcoming)

Eventually I narrowed down everything and got everything packed with plenty of room to spare and headed to Richmond. I stopped at Whole foods and picked up a sandwich, a cookie, and an apple for less than ten dollars to counter my later frustration with hoe expensive airport food is and then went to meed Dad's friend John. John lives near the airport and was actually going to drop me off (and pick up me and Dad when we returned - same day, similar times, different airlines (yes this could go totally wrong)).

When I tried to check myself in, it told me I needed to see an agent. Boo. That meant waiting in line. Turns out my outgoing flight was already delayed an hour. If I had known this I could have tried to come in for an earlier flight, an option in Australia, but apparently not here. I asked if I would make my connection in Atlanta and the agent told me that I might, but that I was already pre-booked on the next flight to Phoenix just in case. Well nothing to do but wait, so I settled with coffee and a fresh book and waiting it out.

The flight was delayed a little bit more and I missed my connection in Atlanta by twenty minutes. I went to an agent to confirm my next connection and my ticket said I was sitting in row 2. Could that be first class? This flight switched gates and then was a little delayed as well. Maybe there was some horrendous weather happening across the country?

2D is indeed first class, the first row. They had a wood floor in the tiny first class bathroom. Mark, the gentleman sitting next to me, was an interesting seat partner and we spent most of the flight chatting. He works at making nuclear power plants even safer and we had similar interests in science, traveling and life. When is this going to happen with someone more my age?!?! First class = free booze so I had some Bailey's in my coffee and free snacks so I had another apple. My delicious whole foods dinner on the first flight seemed like forever ago.

I finally landed in Phoenix around eleven - their time - meaning it was two east coast time. Kelley picked me up and we chatted on the way north to Prescott. We arrived at Aaron's parent's house to find that only my Dad was smiling and awake. Kelley woke up Aaron and they headed to their apartment and I settled onto the couch for some much needed sleep. If I waited a couple of hours more I would have made it a full twenty four hours - yuck.