Travel Day

June 2 came quickly and I found myself awake through the night anticipating departure. After many wonderful goodbye dinners and get togethers, hugs, kisses and setting up Global Wireless, FaceTime and WhatsApp - it was time to go. 

It is probably best to start a travel day first thing in the morning, too tired to process and too early for my stomache to begin its battle with the stress. 

The trip to the airport was easy enough, maneuvering through morning rush hour traffic in the much slower than anticipated HOV lane brought us only a few minutes later than expected. As I had looked online to verify flight info that morning, my Lufthansa flight was set to depart at 8:55 am. Figuring it to be an international flight, we parked at Tom Bradely International and went about looking for Lufthansa's Check-In counters. Walking around each section, B, then A, then C, we found no counter open. Confused, I went to the help desk and was informed Lufthansa opened at 11:30... "Hmmmm", I said "but my flight leaves at 8:55?" The man took a look at my paperwork, seemed a bit surprised to see Lufthansa listed, and entered the flight number into the computer. He found my flight was actually with United, departing from Terminal 7. It could not have been farther away, and at 7:30 it seemed I might just be pushing the limits of time. We walked briskly along the airport walkway and made it just before 8 to United. When I tried the self check in terminal, I was given a message to go the the counter for "Special Handling". Uh-oh... 

The wait for the ticket agent/counter assistant (?) was looong, watching the minutes fly by made my stomache ache! I just knew I'd miss the flight. Finally, after entering my information, the agent informed me that I was booked on the 3:00 pm flight and that United had repeatedly attempted to contact Expedia with the change to no avail. But my information, from just that morning with Lufthansa's confirmation, was an 8:55 flight?? The lady was so helpful, she tried to get me on the 8:55, but no seats, so I had to settle for the 10:15. That shorted my layover from 2.5 hours to 1 and a quarter. All boarding passes in hand and my heavy (51.5 lbs) luggage going through to Düsseldorf, we figured it worked out for the best. With time to spare, we shared breakfast and then a tearful goodbye...

Screening and gate waiting were uneventful, until they announced a gate change. Lots of shuffling for the numerous United flights, made for lots of people moving and we too went from Gate 73 to Gate 81. It did not seem too difficult, but apparently, the mass of gate changes, delayed planes everywhere. We were told our plane would arrive at the gate after the one already sitting there left... But it was now 9:30 and we were scheduled to board at 9:40. The plane sat and sat and sat... Finally at 9:45 it departed, allowing our plane to pull in. This flight from Sacremento still needed to unload, then the crew was to be changed out, the plane cleaned, fueled and loaded... A new departure time was set for 10:40, causing the cushion of time between my flights to drastically shrink. There go those stress juices!

I suppose they gave us the speed demon pilot to put the whole flight pattern back together. This guy made up nearly all the lost time in the air, arriving only 3 minutes later than expected. Awesome! But, glitches continued and no one came to guide the plan in... A 10 minute wait on the runway negated the pilots efforts. We finally disembarked at 4:50 pm with 10 minutes to get from Terminal C to B at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. 

Running through the airport, I saw lots of great places to eat and take in, but it was not to be. Making a guick pit stop and grabbing a Starbucks sandwich, I made it just as Economy was boarding.. Whew! On the plane, I relaxed greatly and settled in for the flight. It has been a long time since I flew with Lufthansa, and I have to say their service and care on the flight were just as good as I remember. It was always prohibitive in terms of price, but this flight had been the more economical of choices. Yay! 

Once in flight, I watched Cinderella and Still Alice. They could not have been more different, but for me, both were emotionally charging and inspirational. I enjoyed Cinderella, it was a feel good movie with just the right amount of adversity. What I liked best was her mother's advice to be kind and courageous. Courageous is definitely my theme this Sabbatical year and finding kindness in myself a goal. And of course in the end, she gets her man! 😊 Still Alice was hard to watch, as an intelligent, lively women lost her memories and cognitive abilities. She, too, was courageous. And this character solidified my own mind of living now as fully and as adventurously as we can.  

And so I begin, at home now in Rhede, Germany, but soon to set foot on paths unknown, to be courageous and kind.