Trip to Maine Part 1

I planned my trip back home to Maine for this weekend because my cousin Sherry is getting married.  What better time to get to see all the cousins I haven’t seen in ages right? 

Wednesday we packed up all my stuff in the PT and headed to work.  My flight wasn’t until later that night so I had to put in a full day of work first.  My decision to pack lightly this year was based on the fact that I’m staying at my moms and she has a washer and drier, plus I know I’m going to end up buying stuff much like last year and since I had a hard time fitting said stuff into my suitcase last time, I would just bring a few things and buy whatever I needed here.

Rob brought me to the airport after work where we had a nice dinner of prawns and twice baked potato with clam chowder and the most delicious bread.  My goal was to overstuff myself so I wouldn’t need to buy any expensive food on the plane(it worked by the way.)  After that my nerves kicked in and thanks to PMS I had a mini melt down out in the parking lot where were getting my luggage which resulted in some tears and me smoking a cigarette.  That helped out and then we were off to check in my bag. 

As I learned last year, Monterey will shut down their security screening if there are no upcoming flights within an hour or two so Rob and I waited in the lobby for a few minutes waiting for them to open.  

  We took pics and twittered on our phones and eventually the gates opened.  Rob made sure I was all set up to go through and then with a kiss and a hug he was gone.  Long drawn out goodbyes only cause me to cry so we know we have to make it short and sweet. 

By some small miracle my bags weren’t picked for additional screening so I gathered my stuff back up and walked the 20 feet to the gate.  Rob was waiting by the glass to see me walk through so when he saw me he gave me a wave and headed off. 

The 1st leg of the trip was to San Francisco.  It was a prop plane but thankfully the whole flight was only about 20 minutes long.  I really wish I had taken my camera out too because there was a really cool shot in the air of when the clouds met the fog right before the ocean.  It will forever be burned in my memory but of course I didn’t get to get a picture of it.

At the San Fran airport I booked it to the gate for 2nd leg of the trip.  It was to the Dulles airport in DC.  Last year there was hardly anyone on this flight and I was able to lay down on all three seats in my row.  It was really great because it is a five hour overnight flight.  I was kinda hoping for the same thing this trip.  I was already sleepy from all the food I had eaten, not to mention it was around ten at night and already past my bedtime.

All hopes were dashed when they announced that the flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to give up their seats.  The deal they were offering was pretty sweet actually.  They would get you on the next flight in the morning, put you up in a hotel in San Fran with transportation to and from AND you would get a free round trip ticket to anywhere in the US except HI and AK with no black out dates.  If I hadn’t had a connecting flight to catch with a ride waiting for me when I got there I would have seriously considered it. 

I had a bad experience on this flight last year so I wasn’t looking forward to this flight.  I had bought a pillow and sleep mask at the airport because I knew the first part of the flight wouldn’t be too bad and I had already seen what movie would be showing and I had no desire to watch DragonBall Z. 

The flight was surprisingly smooth.  There was about a 15 minute period where we ran into some turbulence but other than take off and landing, that was the only time the seat belt light was on.  I found a classical music station on the plane radio and was able to get about an hour and a half of sleep in ten minute increments.  I just can’t sleep well sitting up.

In DC I stopped a Five Guys again for a breakfast sandwich and then headed to my gate where I read until they announced our flight.  Once we boarded they warned us that it was raining and very foggy in Portland and they were prepared to reroute us through Vermont if they had to.  Great.  

It was another full flight.  I sat next to a very nice girl reading an electricians for dummies book.  I gave her my standard disclaimer that I was a nervous flier and not to mind me and she was fine with that.  Behind me were two chatterboxes that made me remember a pair of earplugs had come with my sleep mask.  🙂

The flight attendants were still milling about when I felt us starting to descend…very quickly.  I know that it was probably just the clouds we were going through that made me think it was going far too fast but that is when the panic started to set it.  Finally the pilot came on and announced we were making our “rather rapid decent” into the Portland airport and hopefully the turbulence wouldn’t “get any worse”. 

Yeah, it was pretty bad.  Probably the worst I have ever experienced.  And the worst part was everything outside was a haze of grey cotton candy.  You could see NOTHING else.  I don’t know about you, but when I am flying and the plane starts descending, as soon as I can see the ground I feel better.  Just knowing that it is there and we are getting closer and will be on the ground soon is comforting. 

Amid the gauzy outside view the plane was rocking and dipping and being tossed side to side.  One of the flight attendants almost took a dive as he was walking through getting the garbage.   The person sitting next to me is calm as calm can be, but she is on the lookout for the ground for me since she now knows I can’t look out the window for myself without getting more frightened.  There is a couple across the aisle from me where the wife has her head in her hands and he is rubbing her back.  I suddenly miss Rob very much.  “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”  I hear the man say.  I look over expecting to see him comforting his wife but I find he is looking right at me as he says the words.  I realize that I am rocking back and forth trying to breathe.  I smile and just say: “I don’t do flying very well.”  He nods and smiles and says: “Just think of it as a very big roller coaster.” 

I grin and say: “I don’t do those either.”   He just laughs and says: “Okay, then just trust me, it will be okay.” 

I am grateful people are so nice but embarrassed that I am such an obvious basket case.  🙂

When the treetops are finally visible both my new friends, my seatmate and the guy across look at me and exclaim: “We can see ground!”  Thank goodness for small favors.

The touch down was flawless and as we taxi to the gate we see that it is a torrential downpour outside.  I could care less about getting wet…in fact I would have gotten down on my knees and kissed the ground but I didn’t want everyone to think I was a bigger freak than I already was.  😀

On the ground I make my way to baggage claim while calling my aunt to let her know they can head out to come pick me up.  I text Rob and let him know I landed safe and after a long wait finally get my bag and head out to see my Aunt Lee(auntie tee) and my mom.

After a short drive through the streets of Portland we get to Auntie Tee’s house and move my luggage from that car to mom’s and head into the house where I get to see my cousin Rocky who I haven’t seen in at least ten or thirteen years.  She, my brother and I were all the babies of the cousins so of course I tended to be closer to Rocky than any of my other cousins.  She was Shawn’s age so she was older and I always looked up to her.  She is now living in Virginia, married with two beautiful children that I got to meet that day. 

We didn’t stay long as I was running on empty both food and sleepwise and I was in desperate need of a shower.  So mom drove us home and after dropping me off she headed out to Red Barn to get us a fish and chicken basket with fries and onion rings and a chocolate shake for me.  The Red Barn is a mom and pop place just down the road from my moms house that we have always loved.  How can you go wrong with deep fried everything??

I had planned to go to Walmart to pick up an outfit for Sherry’s wedding and get some essentials that I hadn’t brought with me but as soon as that food hit my belly I was comatose.  I changed into PJ’s and somehow managed to wait until the sheets for my bed were out of the drier before collapsing on my bed and falling into an instant slumber around four in the afternoon eastern time.

I awoke around ten thirty to thunder crackling loudly overhead.  I opened my eyes to find the accompanying lightening flashing as well.  About two minutes later I saw the living room light blink on and new that my mom had woken up as well.

I padded out into the living room and mumbled “gotta pee” before hitting the bathroom and coming back out.  Mom announced that she didn’t want me sleeping in my room while the storm was raging because there were two large trees right outside my room that could fall down and crush me in my bed.  Yikes, thanks mom!

 I grabbed my blanket and sleep mask and dragged them out to the recliner where I laid for about fifteen minutes.  I couldn’t really sleep there but thankfully the worst of the storm had passed so after taking full blame for the storm(“I facebooked saying I wanted thundershowers while I was here because we don’t get those back home.”) I headed back to my bed to fall back into my coma until mom woke me this morning at seven or so.

She has to work today so I drove her first to McDonalds for her breakfast and then to work so I could have the car. 

My original plan was to make it to walmart while she was working but she has now expressed an interest in going so I will have to wait.   However as I was driving back from her work I found myself wishing I had brought my camera with be because there are some great shots of downtown I would like to get.  So I think I might just take my camera on a little jaunt to see if I can get some good pics.  Plus I have to go to the gym down the street and see if they will sign me up for a weeks worth of membership.  I still have to train for my 10 K but I didn’t anticipate all this rain either.  Hmph.

So here I sit, on my bed with the laptop and cell phone.  I’m blogging, texting Paula and sipping a diet sprite.  Who says I can’t multi task???   I need to shower and come up with some sort of plan for the day, but I want to be lazy. 

Okay, that is all for now, I’ll blog as more happens.