Thursday, February 22, 2007

And We're Off!




Even though I was almost completely packed, I still found myself rushing around this morning with a strong case of the butterflies in my stomach. I resigned myself to the fact that I would be like that all day, this being a work day/travel day.

I packed myself a light lunch – nuts & leftover Chipotle’s. Mindy didn’t need a lunch.

I did my daily run from home to avoid the feeling of it hanging over my head later in the day. At my run’s completion I wrapped a gift for Mindy that I planned to present to her on Friday. In route to work I stopped at the bank to withdrawal a little cash. I didn’t arrive at work until almost 9am.

Because I had already finished my run, I decided to work straight through until 3:00pm. I spent the final hour of my work day preparing for my absence (VM, out of office email, etc).

I left for home at 3pm sharp. Mindy informed me that she’d be picking Ashley up at her house since her car apparently wouldn’t start.

I arrived home by 3:15pm. I had a short list of to-do’s needing addressed before 4pm. I got on those immediately. I worried that the icy snow still lying on the sidewalk might put Ashley in harms way while trying to walk the dog and taking care of the kids. I got out the square garden shovel and cleared a path to the adjoining neighbor’s dry walk. That meant i had to pry/shovel two inches of ice off the walk. It wasn't easy by any means. I also screwed Ykraps’ dog leash into the frozen ground just off the deck in case Ashley has to abandon a full blown walk for whatever reason.

Mindy arrived around 3:45pm. By then I was well into last minute details like airplane snacks, laptop, double checking all literature on reservations and such.

We were completely ready by 4:05pm. We expected Bob shortly after 4:00pm. We were more than ready. And yes, I was more than a little tense. By the time 4:30pm rolled around, still no Bob. Mindy tried his cell and then his home. Mary Ann answered and said she’d call him at work. He called back minutes later to let us know that he was on his way.

Just a little rushed, we loaded our gear inot his minivan and hit the road. It was 4:55pm. We stopped by Bob’s to pick-up Mary Ann and their luggage. By 5:15 we were on the road. We arrived at the airport by 5:30pm. Bob was kind enough to drop us at the terminal to check-in while he went to park the car. That worked perfectly. Just as we were handing our checked luggage to the TSA folks, Bob walked up. Next stop - security!

Tommy was no where to be found. We stopped at the Columbus Brewing Company’s kiosk and ordered two of their 1859 Porter’s. Finally, we all began to feel the euphoria of vacation time. Tommy soon showed up. It was 6:15pm. Minutes later we walked to our gate where we waited only a matter of minutes before we boarded our plane destined first for Minny.

We landed in Minny after a rather nappy flight. Hey, but no bumpy weather. We stopped in the food court along concourse F and had a fast food break. We arrived at our departing gate just before boarding. We sat on the plane a good 40 minutes waiting on our pilots. Like I often do, I fell asleep. I did wake just before take-off, however.

The flight to Portland was scheduled to take about 3 hours and 20 minutes. That was about right. We landed around 11:30pm. After gathering our luggage at a rather empty airport we were shuttled off to the Thrifty Car Rental just down the airport highway. We called Glenn just before we arrived at the rental facility to let him know we were in town. We guessed being about an hour. The rental went quickly, although they tried feverishly to upgrade us but we didn’t bite. We went with the basic rental – no frills!

Just after 12:30am we arrived at our destination – Glenn’s place. Glenn had the house well prepared to receive five guests. After our initial greetings we settled in for a cold brew while Glenn gave a house tour. Mindy was the first to call it a night. The rest of us stayed up a little later. Glenn, Mary Ann and I did a shot of tequila just before going to bed.





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