I'm kind of doing this backwards, but I thought I'd fill you all in on my trip. I've already let you know about my adventure back home, now how about my adventure there?
It all started at 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 17. I had gone to bed around 11:00 the night before, but couldn't seem to sleep, I told Mike I reminded myself of that commercial where the kids can't sleep because they are too excited about the upcoming trip to Disneyland then the Mom whispers to the Dad in bed "You asleep?" and the Dad says "Can't. Too excited". That was me. Like Oscar on Armageddon, I was 99% excited 1% scared. Or was is 99% scared and 1% excited? You don't know, that's what makes it so...Intense.
Anyway, 2:00 I climb out of bed, take a shower and get ready. I'm ready to go by like 2:25 and I didn't need to leave until 3:00. So, what do I do? I did the two things I'd told Shael I wanted her to do. I put a load of laundry in the dryer that I'd left in the washer at 11:00 and unloaded the dishwasher. Then loaded the dishwasher back up and ran it. I'm sure Shael didn't mind at all, if she even noticed. Knowing her, that load of laundry would have sat in the washer until Mike ran out of clean jeans and had to break down and wash some four days later. Finally, at around 10 till 3:00, I went and gave Mike last minute hugs and kisses and he gave me last minute money (just to be on the safe side) and I hefted my heavy suitcase out to the car in the rain.
I got to Fine Airport parking a tad before 5:00 and parked my car outside in the "cheap seats" (or so I thought, seems there are no cheap seats at Fine Airport parking, but that's a whole other gripe). I was dropped off at the terminal at exactly 5:00 a.m. I was fourth in line to check in. Not bad. I was told to go ahead and electronically check in with my credit card. It was somewhat spooky to swipe that card for a second and have my whole itinerary and name and address pop up in 3.5 seconds. Big Brother. He's everywhere. But, anyway, I got checked in, got my luggage checked in and was told where to go from there. I went up the steps to find this huge line for the three X-Ray machines. I took my shoes off, placed my bag and purse on the belt and watched as it disappeared into the X-Ray machine, hoping it wouldn't somehow screw up my cell phone and camera SD card. I walked on through, got my shoes back and my bag and purse and found my gate with no trouble. I knew I had 90 minutes before I could board, so I sat down with my library book. (How many people do you know travel with borrowed books from the library?) I sat there and read for an hour. There were hardly any other people around. Finally around the time we were suppose to be boarding, they came on the loud speaker announcing that the plane we were to take from Tulsa to Newark N.J. was delayed. Because of bad weather, it had overnighted in Houston instead of Tulsa and it was JUST THEN leaving Houston. We had to wait for that plane to get to Tulsa from Houston, deplane, get cleaned up then we could board. We should be leaving by 9:30. It was 6:30 in the morning.
So, I went over to a little food place and grabbed me a bottle of water and a huge muffin. I sat down with it and called Mike to let him know my progress then I called Mom around 7:00 to let her know and to talk to Shael. Sure enough, by 9:30 we were leaving Tulsa behind in a big showery mess. Rain. With luck, and speed, I might still catch my connecting flight out of Newark to Manchester, N.H. Luck and speed were neither one with me that day. I missed my flight by about 15 minutes. No worries, I thought. They had told me in Tulsa that if I missed my flight, then I would automatically be booked on the 3:30 flight. When we got to Newark, it seems the same bad weather system that had created such trouble the night before in Houston had followed us all the way to the East Coast. We had to circle the city for 20 to 30 minutes before we could land, in the process my connecting flight flew off without me. Yay. My 1:45 flight that I missed by 15 minutes was probably the last flight to leave on time the rest of the day. I went straight to the information desk at the gate to make sure I was on the 3:30 and they were kind enough to tell me that the 3:30 flight was flat out canceled and I had to rebook on the 8:30. But hurry, because all flights are delayed and/or canceled and I might have a hard time getting a seat. This guy that got off the plane behind me heard this, too and we both scurried to gate 123 from gate 110 as fast as we could. When we got there, we were confronted with this HUGE line. OMG. We both just dropped our bags and our arms were still beside our bodies like we both had the air knocked out of us and we couldn't move. I called my friend to let her know what the situation was and she was watching my flight the whole time on line and knew what was going on, pretty much before I did. She called Hertz for me to make sure they'd still be there at the airport for me when I got in. They would, seeing as they didn't close until 1:00 a.m. I called Mike to let him know I'd made it as far as New Jersey. I stood in line for 30 minutes when the guy behind me got a brain storm. He called the airline on his cell phone and booked a seat on the 8:30 flight then, this is the best part, he asked the lady on the phone if she could help the lady standing in line in front of him because she was going to the same destination as he. She said sure and he handed me his cell phone and I was able to book a seat on the 8:30 flight without having to stand in the line anymore. Wasn't that incredibly nice of him? We left the line behind us, wishing all those other people luck, and decided to go grab something to eat. It was getting on to close to 3:00 and all I'd eaten all day was that muffin and that bottle of water in the Tulsa airport and a bag of pretzels on the flight. The Newark airport is massive! Like a mall with a food court. We both grabbed something from McDonald's and sat together and visited for two hours there. He was so nice, on leave from the Navy, coming back from Tulsa after a visit with his family and meeting his wife in Manchester only to turn around the next day for a flight to Denver with a weeks worth of visiting with his wife's family. Seems he'd even played in the NEO basketball tourney when he was in high school a few years back. Small world. We went back to our gate and checked the status on our 8:30 flight. Delayed. To 9:00. Oh, well, what's 30 more minutes, right? After waiting 6-1/2 hours already? Then it was delayed to 9:30, then 9:45, then 10:00, then 10:15, then 10:30 and we were finally taking off the ground at 10:45. I'd been at this airport for over 8 hours. I had been up since 2:00 in the morning. With only a few restless hours of sleep before that.
I really tried to sleep, I honestly did. I had my eyes shut the entire flight. The entire 42 minutes. Yes, I'd waited at the airport for over 8 hours for a 42 minutes flight. That sucked. From there, things get kind of blurry about the time. I know I was getting in my rental car sometime after midnight, I had already told my friend not to look for me that night, that I was going to get me a motel somewhere and drive in the next day. She said that was the smart thing to do. I got in the rental car, thinking that they were closing in less than an hour and I was glad I finally made it. I drove, in this unfamiliar city, in an unfamiliar car, trying to decide how far to drive before I got a room. I felt totally awake. I know it was my adrenaline, but I also knew that I might suddenly get exhausted and have to find a place to sleep immediately and I didn't want to be out in the middle of nowhere when that happened.
I drove out of the city, drove on into the next city, Concord, and kept on going. I drove and drove until 1:00 when I realized that I really did need to find a place to sleep. I stopped at a rest stop and briefly considered sleeping in the car there, but quickly dashed that idea. I looked at my map for probably the tenth time and decided that Franklin looked big enough to hold a motel since it had a hospital. I got to the Franklin exit and took it, went through this deserted town, not one single thing was open at 1:00. I drove all the way to the hospital and found not one single motel of any kind. I turned around, I didn't want to waste any more time searching at 1:30 in the morning. The place I'd gotten off the interstate only had one ramp, an off ramp, to get back on to the Interstate, I had to go to a little town called Tilton, a town that was a mere mile down the Interstate from where I'd exited. There I found a Super 8. Naturally. If only I'd stayed on the Interstate one more mile I would have found what I was looking for instead of driving for 30 or more minutes looking for what wasn't there.
I got checked in, got to my room and was changed into my nightgown crawling into bed at exactly 2:00 a.m. With the time difference, that meant I'd been up for 23 hours. Check out was at 11:00 and I had planned to sleep till 10:00 then get up and head out by 11:00. Mike called me and woke me up at 8:30. I answered all groggy and he said "Hey, did I wake you up?" Well, Duh! After talking to him, I couldn't get back to sleep even though I stayed in bed, desperately trying to. I think I might have finally dozed back off around 9:30 then the alarm went off at 10:00. I was walking out the front door of the motel at 10:59. (btw, the weather in Denver was snow, snow and more snow. I felt so bad for the nice kid who had helped me the day before, I was hoping he wouldn't run into more trouble)
I took off and was amazed at the beauty of the state. I drove straight up north through practically the entire state of New Hampshire. Through the White Mountains. Though I don't claim to have seen the entire state, what I saw was very beautiful. Twenty miles or so from Vermont, I turned east, toward Maine. Once I got off the Interstate, what greeted me was the most quintessential, quaint, New England "villages" I've ever seen. So beautiful. I am ever grateful I took that way. I took my time, stopping whenever I wanted, hurrying for no one. When I crossed over into Maine, I drove through about 1/2 mile of white birch trees that almost took my breath away, they were gorgeous. I mean, you see these trees everywhere, but at this one particular stretch of the road, they were amazing to look at. I don't even remember if they had any leaves on them still, maybe a few yellow leaves, but the trunks were spectacular to behold. The forest came right up to the road and the trees were hanging overhead to form an arch way of these pristine white trees. Absolutely gorgeous. If there hadn't been a car behind me, I would have stopped and snapped a picture. I should have anyway. Because, I never made it back that way.
I was really starting to get tired by the time I got to my final destination. It was 5:30 in the evening, about 24 hours later than I thought I'd be there. My friends greeted me with hugs and kisses and brought me in and wouldn't let me help with supper as they cooked. After a few hours of catching up, we headed off to my friend's apartment as we'd been at her parents home. There, I finally crashed. I slept like a log.
The next day, Thursday, she took me to Portland to Old Port and we spent the afternoon poking around shops and walking on the old cobble stone streets. The smell of salt water and fish a constant in the air. I could never get sick of that smell. I love it. I picked up some really pretty maple leaves and pressed them into my checkbook. They turned out beautifully, and now I only wish I'd picked up more.
On Friday, we went to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. It was a foggy rainy day, but that didn't stop us. We took off anyway. And I'm so glad we did. I saw some breath taking views from the top of some really slick looking rocks. Water crashing up against the rocks so far far far below me. The sound of the buoy in the fog. My friend and I agreed that we could both just sit for hours listening to that sound and never get bored of it. Bar Harbor was neat, but totally not what I expected. Not too sure what I expected really, but it was somehow smaller than I had pictured it.
On Saturday, we drove to Portland again to catch the Amtrak to Boston. The train was sold out by the time we reached the ticket agent (he wasn't a friendly bloke) so we decided to take a bus. We had to wait a little but that was no big deal. Once on the bus, I started feeling somewhat car sick. I didn't mention it, but instead kept my eyes glued to the monitor that was showing The Indian in the Cupboard. As long as I didn't look out the window much, I was fine, but I couldn't help myself and kept looking out the window here and there until I felt that nasty queasy feeling coming back then I'd watch the movie until that feeling went away. It didn't take long to get to Boston, and we quickly found our way to the T and rode the subway to the beginning of the Freedom Trail. Mike knows how I am about historic landmarks, I always like to stop and read them, well, Boston is a history buff's wet dream. Full of history. I didn't stop and read every single little detail about every single stop on the Freedom Trail, I was satisfied to stop and look, take a picture and go on with it. I wasn't sure how long it would take us to walk the entire length and I didn't want to miss our train back because we bought tickets in Portland for our return from Boston. But, another reason was because it was cold! Sometimes it was like we were in a wind tunnel when we got between those tall buildings. But, I needn't have worried. We made good time. We saw some pretty cool things, like Samuel Adams (the man, not the beer) grave and Paul Revere's home, and the church where he hung the lanterns (one if by land, two if by sea). We saw the USS Constitution. That was very cool. We walked across the Charles River, twice. When we got done, we still have about 2-1/2 hours before our train left. The train station is in the Boston Garden and there was a Bruins game that night and the place was packed with yellow and black jerseys so we walked a few blocks to a coffee shop and waited in warmth for close to time for our train. I called Shael and talked with her for a while, and when she found out I was in Boston told me to look for the Tipton Hotel. HUH? "You know, Mama, like on The Suite Life Of Zach and Cody". While my friend was in the bathroom, the radio started playing "More Than A Feeling" and I had to laugh at the idea of listening to Boston in Boston. When she came back it was still playing and I mentioned it and she laughed at me laughing because she would have never even noticed. We made our train with plenty of time to spare and I was secretly glad that it was already dark when we got on it after that bus trip. I wasn't too sure if a train ride would do the same.
It was very late by the time we got back to her apartment and we ended up staying up even later when we got there. It was 3:00 in the morning before we went to bed.
Sunday was a very laid back and lazy day. It was cool out and we hardly even stepped outside all day. We drove into the nearest town with a grocery store and she bought some groceries and that was about it. She did laundry and her and I played cards all afternoon just about. That game of Nertz lasted hours! No wonder we use to play it till the wee hours of the morning. Her parents came over and we had a nice dinner and lots of lively conversation concerning a poem about a bear and my dad. (hee hee)
The next morning, my friend had to return to the real world and go back to work. After her and her daughter left, I got up and slowly got myself ready. It was raining pretty good that day and I was hoping the weather would hold off until the next day when my flight left. I drove off from her apartment at 10:00 and was finally leaving town and getting on the nearest Interstate by 11:00. It only took me three hours, even including the stopping for lunch somewhere around Kennebunk. I was checking in to my motel in Manchester, just a mile away from the airport, by 2:00 in the afternoon. At 5:00 I ventured out and ate a good supper of seafood chowder in this little diner across the street after filling up the tank of that rental car. I was back in my room in a little over an hour and watched a movie. Everything seemed so anticlimactic somehow. I finally turned out the lights and went to bed at 8:00. But, I kept waking up every 30 minutes all night long, afraid I would oversleep, that the wake up call at 4:00 wouldn't come. But, I shouldn't have worried, it called.
When I got back to the rental car return the GPS (Hertz NeverLost, that was totally cool) announced "You have arrived". I felt like I really had.
You all know the rest.
