As far as long days goes, this one was very long! The day started off exactly the same as all the other weekdays so far. Life was uneventful through breakfast, getting on the bus and starting the day. Once the youngest daugter was on the bus, I ran over to the church. I was going to move a set of steps from behind the modular building to the back of the pastor's new home so the bank inspectors could access the house - the guys installing their house will build a deck out back later and add steps for the front as well but for now the only way to get in was a ladder. The steps to the modular were attached with two long bolts so I changed the plan and moved a picnic table to the back entrance. Once I fortified it with bricks and made sure the steps were okay so the pastor's wife could get in there "lady like" with a skirt on, I figured things were good enough. Actually the picnic talbe worked out quite well. I came back home and the oldest daughter was about to leave, so I started getting things into the car so we would be prepared for our flight out later in the evening.
For as dumb as our dog is, she seems to know when something major is going on! All morning long she was up and down the stairs. Around 11ish, I lifted the garage door and put the VW in the garage causing the dog to go absolutely wild! So, I figured no better time than then to take her to the kennel. Dropped her off, ran by the bank, filled the Expedition up with gas, put the last of the bags in the car, folded and put away the last of the laundry then waited for the little one to get home.
As she got off the bus, I put the alarm on the house and we drove over to the high school to pick the oldest daughter up early. Our area had a slight threat of snow but the weather held off. Traffic from the high school to the airport was light and we timed it very well. Once at the airport, I found a great parking spot and we went in.
I just love the airline's newest money making proposition - charging for each bag. One bag I had weighed 5 pounds over their limit so the lady was going to charge me an additional $150.00!!! I pulled the bag back, moved somethings from that bag to the second bag and then both of them were well under. I'm pretty sure the airlines didn't reduce each person's ticket cost by $25, so they are making out pretty well on the bag situation. Actually what is really happening is more people are just not checking their bags, they are dragging them onto the airplane and trying to cram them into the overhead bins!
We had supper in the terminal then went through the TSA security checkpoint with no problem. Our departure gate was close by and we had time to sit and relax a little before departing. The little one is not a big fan of "things she has too much time to think about" so I worked hard to keep her from worrying about the flight. We watched a couple of airplanes taxi out, one taxi in and she was okay. Well, until we were airborne!! Once she closed her window I knew we had a problem. A little bit of talking and then we were able to open the window again - she was able to slowly accept where we were at. Then the pilot announced "We are now at 34,000 feet and will be here for the duration." That caused some minor concern but she did well.
We arrived at Atlanta early and it was a good thing!!! We were at Terminal A and had to go to Terminal T!!! Hartsfield is a very nice airport but we had a long walk from A to T! The trains they have were filled to the brim and I doubt another person could have gotten in there. They do have moving sidewalks so that was nice. Still, we were all happy to make it to Terminal T!
Our flight from Atlanta to Seattle was just under 5 hours long. The plane left about 10 minutes late but the pilot was able to make up for it. I had tried to keep my wife informed of the details via text messages all day long, but I would learn later she had a really, really, really long day in the field and knew nothing of what we were doing until much later in the evening. The flight to Seattle was drama free - the little one slept a good portion of the way wedged between the oldest daughter and myself. The flight did have television and movies on a tv in the back of the headrest so that was nice. They also had a flight information channel that showed the track of the aircraft, altitude, speed and other stuff like that. The coolest thing was the track of the aircraft - you knew where you were all the time.
We arrived in Seattle a few minutes before midnight pacific time - to our bodies it was 3 am so I was pretty close to 24 hours of awake time! Of course the "24 hour car rental" wasn't really 24 hours inside the airport - we had to go over into the garage, down some stairs and find the rental counter. Fortunately the hotel we reserved was less than half a mile away - when I walked into the hotel I told the young lady there "we have been awake almost 24 hours now, please make this drama free - any questions you need answered can wait until tomorrow." She was very understanding and I think she wanted to get back to her tv show as well - I parked the car and we were asleep in less than 30 minutes at 1:15 PST!! Very long day!!
Day Twenty Five comes to a close early on Day Twenty Six - here's looking forward to that 26th day!
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