I don't care what anyone says; getting up at 5:00 a.m. for a flight is a bummer. It's a double-bummer when you've only gone to sleep at 2:00 a.m.
So here I am, with 3 hours of sleep, waking up 15 minutes before my 5 a.m. alarm, and having to get up and get ready to go. Ugh! I have this problem of waiting until the last minute to pack, because I just can't seem to decide what I want, and how to pack it. Two pairs of shoes or one? Long sleeves or short? How many pairs of pants, and what kind? Should I fit it all in a carry-on and risk leaving things behind, or should I just check a larger bag? Plus there's all the business of all the things I have to get done before I go. So much to do, so little time to sleep.
Claude has graciously volunteered to drive Patricia and I to the airport, and he comes by the house at about 5:30. I decide to forego winter clothing, and just head out in my bunnyhug. We load up the luggage, and are off to the airport.
Patricia checked us in the night before, so now all we have to do is check our bags. We print off our tags, then go to load it onto the conveyer belt. The robot overlords do not like my tag - the barcode placement is off. It rejects my bag three times. I suggest the guy just lift it onto the main conveyer, and he sadly sighed with an "if only!" Guess the robots get the final say. However, the baggage guy did put my bag on its side, and the robots read the barcode and finally my luggage was allowed to float off on its journey. Patricia puts her bag on the conveyer belt; same deal. Sadly, it seems our family is blacklisted by robots.
With that done, we head off to security, where I am almost-randomly selected for extra screening. Not actually randomly, because the guard tried to select the guy before me, but he had a Nexus card or something, so he had to let him go, and I was the poor schmuck next in line. Fortunately for me, I was very un-dangerous, and since I passed the security test, he put me in the trusted lane where I got to go ahead of everyone else. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't very crowded, so this benefit was negligible.
However, both Patricia and I got through security with no mishaps, which is always a bonus, so can't complain too much. We then settled in to wait for boarding time. This time of waiting is calling "boring time". At some point between boring and boarding, you will imagine that you have lost your boarding pass or your passport, and will rifle through your belongings only to find it in a different pocket or something. This is normal.
Finally, we board the plane. Patricia checked us in a bit late, so we're not sitting next to each other, but we do both have window seats, which is nice. She's A15, and I'm A18.
Before we can take off, there's the de-icing process. Guy with a giant firehouse washes the wings down with green antifreeze stuff. We're finally ready for takeoff at about 8:30 a.m., which is a bit behind the initially scheduled 8 a.m., but not too bad.
Takeoff! I always enjoy the big turn after taxiing, and then you hear the engines really roar to life, and you start rolling, and then you REALLY start rolling, and whoosh, you are in the air! It's a gray and cloudy day, until we break through the clouds, and then we're sailing over fluffy whiteness that's just getting lit up by the rising sun. So lovely.
I'm seated just a bit behind the wing, so I have to crane my neck a bit to see the ground (once the clouds clear away), which is what I do for about half the flight.
The other half, I close my eyes and try to catch a tiny bit of rest. I've got my noise-cancelling ear buds from Sennheiser which I bought on a whim in a duty-free shop in Chicago O'Hare, and they are soooo awesome. You can still hear the muffled children around you, but MUFFLED, and it also seriously muffles that annoying drone of the engines. Also, because they are ear buds, it reduces the problem of air pressure in your ears. Worth every penny.
While I'm watching, I'm enjoying watching the snowy ground cover grown more sparse, and seeing the landscape change, and occasionally wondering if we're over Utah, or the Grand Canyon? It's hard to tell from up here. I also enjoy watching the city as we come in for a landing.
When we land in Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, I realize that I will need to almost immediately change from my bunnyhug to a short sleeved shirt, or I'm gonna regret it. Too warm already! Once we collect our luggage, first stop is the washroom to do a quick change.
Then we head outside to the Uber/Lyft pickup area. Charmaine the Uber driver never shows up, because she sucks or got lost. Joseph the Uber driver shows up promptly and drives us to Goodyear.
Patricia & Claude's house is beautiful! It's like a magazine show home or something. The pool in the back yard is absolutely gorgeous, with palm trees shading it, and there's a pergola and BBQ area. And there's a BMW in the garage. What the heck?! We are living the life of Riley here.
First thing on Patricia's list is to take inventory of what's in the house, and what we need to go pick up.
First speed bump? She's never driven the BMW before. It's a newer car with fancy features, and there's some clown college moments involved in trying to turn the car on (it's one of those pushbutton starts, with only a fob, and no ignition key), how to gear shift, etc. etc. Richard - their neighbour from across the street - comes over to see who is trying to very slowly steal Claude's car. Lucky for us, he recognizes Patricia. Okay, not a burglar, just incompetent. 😆
Eventually, we figure out how to have the car in park and NOT roll away, how to start and stop it, and how to program the GPS system.
Off to the grocery store! Which is named Fry's. Which seems weird to me. Whatever, there's food in here, so let's get shopping. Let's buy some steak! Let's buy some liquor! Let's buy some guns, cuz we're in 'Merica, baby. 😜 Okay, no guns.
When we go to check out, Patricia's fancy US credit card is declined. Ruh roh! Fortunately, I have some Shiny American Dollars, and we manage to cover the bills. Time to go home and BBQ our meal.
After supper, Patricia realizes she brought an expired credit card. Double ruh roh! Now she's on the phone, trying to figure out a replacement, or else she'll just have to deal with the exchange rate like us other plebs.
I barbecue some steaks and potatoes and veggies in the back yard, and after supper we head out for a walk to see the neighbourhood. There's a lovely sunset, and the neighbourhoods are a rabbits warren of winding streets. We come around on the main road to go to CVS (drug store) to search for children's medicine, as we have been press-ganged into being drug mules by parents of children. Pickings are slim, but they are there, and we find what we need, and walk home along the longest noisiest street ever. Boundary street on the neighbourhood - if we could have hopped the 7 foot stone wall, we could have walked on the quieter streets inside. No dice! Oh well, it was still a nice long walk after spending a chunk of the day sitting in an airport and then an airplane and then an Uber.
Check out the sunset on our first night here!
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