The Speed Of Light

After a few hours of chatting with my new neighbors at Monday Morning Quilting and a wonderful lunch prepared by none other than Chef Patty Chance, it was time for us to head off to the airport.  We picked up Pat for company and directions and I drove us right on past the turnoff into Never Never Land.  WHAT??  How did I miss that?  The sign must have been behind that big truck I was passing.  RATS!!

Pat got us turned around in a flash and we headed back for about six miles.  Good grief Nancy!!  It didn't matter at all since I still made it to the airport on time.  Lucky me, for the second time in a row, I received the TSA Pre-Check stamp of approval.  No unloading or taking off my boots!

Don't tell Patty, but since I had been so good, I decided a treat was in order.  I savored every single M&M, because I think they cost me 5 cents each.  THREE DOLLARS for this 59 cent bag.

Boarding time came and went.  Uh Oh!!  The loudspeaker finally announced that our plane was a little late, just like the nice lady had told me on the flight over.  "These planes are ALWAYS late!"  I started counting the minutes because I knew my layover for the connecting flight was a short one.  Fifteen minutes they said!

FORTY MINUTES LATER, the plane finally arrived.  Kudos to the Gate Girl who already had everyone checked in for my flight before the plane even unloaded.  There was a mass scramble to get on board.  Look at all this foot room I had ... and it's just a regular seat!!

We finally took off in some of the worst wind ever, tossing us around like Cooper does his chew toys.  Hang on folks, it's going to be a rough one!!

Thank goodness the Pilot put the pedal to the metal and we made the 37 minute flight in 20 minutes.  I'm pretty sure we went the speed of light and landed so hard and fast we all had to grab the seat ahead of us!  

Now for the marathon RUN to my next flight.  Of course we did not land at the same terminal I was leaving from.  The escalator things along the sides helped quite a bit as I ran/walked along them as fast as I could.  I'm thinking it was a quarter mile to my gate but it felt like TWO miles.  

Gasping for air, I arrived just in time to check in and grab my seat ... a beauty of extra proportions just behind first class.  There was even MORE room!!  The worst part about the entire trip was I did NOT get dinner since there was no time to stop even for more M&M's.  So dinner consisted of a tiny bag of pretzels and a glass of water.  I'm not complaining however ... I lost another pound yesterday!!

Although the sky was blue with white puffy clouds, the wind was pretty bad at all levels.  It was a rough flight home.  I breathed a sign of relief when we touched down.  Too bad I was a little early with my assessment that I was home free.

We slowed to a stop on the runway in Fresno and that's where we stayed.  So CLOSE and yet so FAR!!!  Finally after ten minutes they notified us there was no ground crew to accept the plane for parking.  Are you kidding me?  "Sorry folks, but we can't park the plane until a parking crew gets here".  

We waited ................... and we waited ...................... and we waited some more.  FINALLY the guy with the waving arms directed us to parking, whereupon we waited even MORE!!  They got us parked but had no one to move the tunnel to the plane.  Well for heavens sake!!  We sat there for another 35 minutes before being allowed to leave.  You go AMERICAN AIR!!

I finally arrived home .... starving and tired.  Trouble was, I wasn't allowed to eat anything after 8:00 because of my blood tests first thing this morning.  By the time I get back after picking up my baby puppies, I'm going to eat everything in sight!!  

And of course it's Magic Kingdom night to boot .... it's going to be a busy day!!