Once they left, I started packing - my flight was at 7 a.m. the next morning, leaving from Hartford, CT. To keep us from having to get up at 4 a.m. my uncle put me up in a nice hotel in CT so I could just take the shuttle from the hotel to the airport.
I had a lot of pictures and my grandmother's jewelry box full of costume jewelry and doo-dads, a couple of afghans, and some other what-nots, and Jim had an old Samsonite suitcase he thought it would all fit in. The problem: nobody knew the combination. Jim, overestimating my abilities, thought I might be able to get it open if he printed out directions from the internet on how to "crack" a luggage combination.
I followed the instructions, and when that didn't work, I followed the next set of instructions. I figured it wasn't going to work, but went on with the tedium of it for the sake of being able to say that I had done my best, and then, suddenly, it opened! Wow. Who knew?
I, never being one to read the instructions until AFTER I play with something, didn't realize they might actually serve a purpose! ;-)
So, feeling like a seasoned transit authority luggage-combination-cracking specialist, I opened and wiped the suitcase down and was amazed at how big it was inside. Not even Samsonite makes huge, durable suitcases like this anymore. What's better, it has wheels and a handle, something I didn't realize they were putting on suitcases when this one was probably made.
To our amazement, everything I needed to put in the suitcase fit, and after I got everything packed we moved my grandfather's old grandfather clock, which was going to be discarded, into their house where they will keep it until I drive up and take it back to TN along with some of my father's old things.
Afterwards, we headed to CT and I got checked in at the hotel. Then, we went to Union Street Tavern in Windsor, CT where they treated me to dinner (great food) and then back to the hotel, where my uncles dropped me off and drove back to MA.
I was up later than I should have been, simply because I love hotels... it always seems more permissible to linger in a nice bubble bath and goof off when you're in a hotel by yourself. When I'm at home, there's always something I feel I should be doing.
At 5 a.m. I got up and got to the lobby so I could catch my ride to the airport. It's a good thing I left early, because the security screening line was so long I had just the right amount of time to catch my flight at 7:20 a.m.
Of course, we sat on the tarmac for half an hour before we left, and another half an hour when we arrived in Detroit. At that point, many of us had to scramble to catch our connecting flight. I almost knocked over a couple of pilots, who looked askance at my rudeness, but I wasn't about to spend the entire day in an airport ala "The Terminal" just because the airport couldn't get its act together and get us off the plane in a reasonable amount of time.
When I got to my connecting flight, they had already closed the doors, but hadn't left yet, and the flight attendants let me on. This plane was even smaller than the other one I had been on. In fact, I think it was the first time I had been on a plane that had a row of two seats on one side and a row of only single seats on the other. I was in one of the single seats, so I had a window seat and an aisle seat all in one! LOL
I had an AMAZING view of the most beautiful, HUGE cloud formation I've ever seen, but I didn't get the picture in time. I did manage to get a picture that was still pretty, though.
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| Head in the clouds! |
I felt like I'd had two weeks of vacation in four days, and I really hated for it to end, but when I got home I was very happy to see my big Booger (70+ pound puppy, for those who don't know) waiting and wagging his tail happily. There's just something about being greeted by a happy dog that can't be beat!
~A~
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