Left the house by 5:30 this morning. I stopped in Ottawa and got breakfast and I stopped to fill the car up with gas. Got to Nicole’s house by 7:30.
We left for the airport around 7:45. There was no wait for the security line so we had extra time at the airport before our flight. Our flight was about 15 minutes late but given the current flying environment that was good. The plane was not full which surprised me.
As we were sitting in the airport in KC I happened to notice my shoes don’t match. They are both black but different brands. Wonder how many people will notice? I didn’t bring extra shoes so will have to deal with unmatched shoes for the duration of the trip. It will give people a reason to remember me.
On the AirTran ride to catch the hotel shuttle there was a man dressed in NY style. I wanted to take his picture and compare to this country girl with mismatched shoes. We do live in different realities.
The guy that drove the shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel was a hoot. He is 76 and it takes him over three hours one way to get to work each day. He lives in Jersey. He kept up well entertained on the trip to the hotel with his life stories. One of his lines “What is one thing you were born with that you don’t want to become? An asshole!”
We got to the hotel and they were able to check us in around 3:00 NY time. We got a king bed instead of the requested two queen beds but we can deal with that. There normal check-in time isn’t until 4:00 and I didn’t want to wait an hour for a room with two queen beds.
There isn’t much around this hotel other than other hotels. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. I had chicken Parmesan that was delicious. Unfortunately the portion was twice as big as I needed so I wasted half of it.
We need to be downstairs at 6:20 to catch the 6:30 shuttle. Our flight isn’t until 10:50 but from what we have been told traffic is horrible tomorrow morning and security lines back up quickly on Sunday morning. I would rather have an extra hour of sitting at the gate than checking my watch every two minutes and stressing about making it to our gate on time. We have to check our bag as they only allow one small carryon and we both have backpacks plus the carry on bag. That will take more time. They also wouldn’t issue a boarding pass as they have to check our passports before they can do that.
We will have a twelve hour flight to Dubai and then a three hour flight to India. There is a 11:30 time difference from home time to India. The time thing that I don’t do well with under normal circumstances gets really wonky when you cross that many time zones. We arrive their time Monday afternoon. I like getting in towards the end of the day so you can get checked into a room and lay down for a bit. I remember when I went to London and arrived at 7:00 in the morning and couldn’t get into my room until 6:00 that evening. That made for a long day.
Nicole and I are trying to psych ourselves out for the long travel day ahead. Neither one of us sleep well on planes but I am used to not sleeping. Somehow, someway, we can do this!
Next time I blog I will be in India. It still amazes me how you can travel to the different parts of the world and be in some place so different in just a day or two. Looking forward to seeing India and the adventures in store for us.
Grateful for safe travels today, grateful for this time with Nicole, and grateful for a clean hotel bed to sleep in tonight.