Parallel Universes

(For my sister-in-law Phyllis, we are still in Coeur d'Alene, so no need to read any further if you do not wish)

In some respects this trip into my "long, long ago" was sort of like waking up one day in a parallel universe.  For a few fleeting days I was 19 again, laughing and talking with my friends from what now seems like another world.  Nevertheless, it is these people that will always be apart of who I am, and every single one of them holds a special place in my heart.

Our flight Sunday morning out of DFW was at 6:10 am......uggghhh!  Whose idea was that?  No one's really.....it is just the first flight out on US Airways, and when you are on standby you get there for the first flight hoping you will make it, but if not there are others after it.  In order to get to the airport and through security we decided we needed to take the 4:30 am Marriott shuttle to DFW, and so arose at 3:30 am to give ourselves plenty of time....as it turned out we could have gotten up at 4 am, and sill made the shuttle downstairs with time to spare.

As always security was a pain the butt, but we managed to get through without the full body cavity search again.  We made the 6:10 am flight out to Phoenix, and because of the two hour time difference between DFW and Phoenix we landed at 6:10 am in Phoenix where it was RAINING cats and dogs....that is the last thing I expected to see in Phoenix this time of year.

It was nice to get off the plane knowing we didn't have to rush to the next gate....our flight to Spokane was scheduled to depart at 10:15 am, so we had a 4 hour wait.....not my favorite thing, but we hadn't had breakfast yet so we found an eatery right next to our gate of departure, and had a nice leisurely meal.  We spent the rest of our time reading, and listening to a gentleman talking non-stop for almost 3 hours to a poor lady across from him who would rather have been reading, too.  Why is it that some people think, or maybe they don't care, everyone wants to hear their life story, and that is what this guy was talking about....OMG....get a book and leave the rest of us alone.  A simple "Hi, how are you?" will more than suffice.....if we want to know more we will ask you.  There was a similar guy on our flight from DFW to Phoenix....he did not stop talking the ENTIRE time, and to make it worse he was using his "outdoor voice"....I guess to be sure we could all share in the pleasure of hearing his life story.

We made the 10:15 am flight out of Phoenix with ease, and were in Spokane by 1:30 pm.  Once again our checked bag arrived as it should....so for me I still have a perfect record....since I took my first flight back in September of 1967 I have never lost a bag, or had a bag end up in Belize.......TLE has had one end up in Oakland, CA instead of Ontario, CA, and when it was returned to her it had melted cheese all over it....that was nasty.  But, again, for me, my record is thus far unblemished. I hope no one at TSA reads my blog....:-)

As we were waiting for our bag to make its appearance at the baggage claim area I called "Jet Park" to send a shuttle over to pick us up......we only waited a few minutes for the shuttle, and within minutes we were back at our car putting the top down for our drive back to Coeur d'Alene and our "home".

It was a wonderful trip.....all went exactly as planned, and we had a wonderful time.  Now it is time to catch up on our sleep....we are exhausted!  I did take time, however, to watch the Men's final at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic and was it a great one.  There were many long rallies, with one going 54 shots....it was an epic struggle, but ultimately Nadal emgered the clear winner by winning the fourth set 6-1.....the first 3 sets were titanic!  After that I watched a little Monday Night Football...there were two games, and then hit the sack a little after 10:30 pm.

Thanks for stopping by!