the long road home

Aero-blogging again. Northwest Airlines. Philadelphia to San Francisco.

Today has been a day of pilgrimage. And I just want to get home. I feel like I'm on the Federation Starship Voyager, and we've been stranded 700 million light years from our solar system, fighting and struggling and plodding onward, while battling all manner of strange and terrible foes . . . with only the smallest glimmer of hope that we will ever see home again.

But I whine.

The day has gone smoothly, for the most part. I didn't sleep well last night, but we got up on time this morning, had a big breakfast, then a nice long drive to Philadelphia. I think it took about three hours. We found a grocery store on the way and were able to procure nice, vegetarian, pre-packaged salads - a good thing, since airports rarely have much for the likes of us.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Oddly, this time I was stopped by security and asked to remove my belt. (Usually, they pick on Corey.) And we found a great salad-type café next to our gate, where we were able to eat a nice lunch before boarding.

The first leg of our flight was a short one, and just took us to Detroit, where it was snowing. The flight was fine and uneventful . . . until we began our descent. At that point, my little cold-virus-friend, who was now residing in my eustachian tubes, decided to commence a small-scale attack on my inner ear. He apparently slipped through airport security with a couple of ice picks, too, because he made short work of the inside of my head.

I was in a terrific mood by the time we landed.

Our next flight had to wait in line for de-icing and finally took off about an hour late. We've been in the air about two hours now, and I've just finished dinner. Apparently, this is the "laptop" phase of the flight, because everyone seems to be pulling out their hardware and goofing around, either productively or non-productively. (If computers had never been invented, that last sentence might read a bit differently, don't you think?)

No word yet from my cold-virus friend. Hmm, he needs a name. Let's see. Cold Virus. C.V. Sounds like . . . Stevie. That's it. I'll call him Stevie. Let's hope Stevie doesn't feel the need to do any more drilling tonight. Ya hear that, Stevie?

Looking back on the trip, it was (as are most trips) full of ups and downs. I'm really glad we had the opportunity to spend so much time with our families. And I'm happy that I got to spend a lot more time with Corey's family, because I haven't seen them in a long time. We had some really nice moments at my parents', too. (Thanks again, Mom and Dad!) But we both agree that the process has been utterly exhausting, and would really like to approach our vacations differently in the future. Maybe just go to one destination each time, instead of three or four or five. Maybe make them shorter. Maybe go ahead and buy that Lear Jet we've always talked about . . .

Posted: Sun - January 4, 2004 at 07:24 PM

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the long road home

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