Heading Home Too Soon

I woke around 130a and then kept waking every 20 minutes or so until it was time to get up for good. This was the first time I used the alarm on my Droid X. Worked well. I bounced out of bed right at 330a and quickly prepared for my run then started the coffee maker that I prepped the night before. I headed out the door at 345a. I felt a little uneasy running the streets of town at that hour, although it’s something I’ve done in the Couv numerous times past. I ran to the freeway viaduct and then back tapping the head of the iron statue I passed it in Esther Short park – again something I’ve been doing for nearly ten years now. I was back at Glenn’s place 30 minutes later and then off to the shower with a cup of coffee in hand. I couldn’t find any clean bath towels so I used a beach towel. There are usually plenty of them in the bathroom cupboards. After my shower I woke Mindy. However, Tommy got up about the same time and headed for the shower first. Mindy used the time to anxiously organized her stuff. Asked me to let her know once he was out. While those two readied, I made each of us a sandwich to-go. That four hour flight to Chicago can be long without something substantial to tie one over. I woke Glenn five minutes before we needed to leave to say goodbye as well as get directions to the nearest gas station. He drew a map on a piece of notebook paper. It was on the way to the freeway entrance. We pulled away right at 530a. I photo’d the moon shining brightly overhead. Rare. Glenn had his white Xmas lights lit, too. The drive to the Port of Portland went without a hitch. We returned the minivan with no surprises and were dropped at the terminal by 6a. We checked our baggage and found our gate by 625a. We shopped for souvenir t-shirts for the kids. I bought Mindy & I matching Oregon t-shirts too. Hungry, I went to the Wendy’s just around the corner from our gate to get a breakfast sandwich. I wanted to save my homemade sandwich for the plane. Mindy & Tommy passed on Wendy’s. We boarded our plane at 7a, and it sounded like we were about to get the obligatory preflight safety instructions when instead they announced that the plane had a flat tire and we all needed to deboard. They said it might be an hour, or that we might even need to change to another plane. He asked that we remember our seats numbers and that they would board the rear of the plane first upon rentry. Made sense to everyone save for these three chicks from Michigan. Let’s just say, they weren’t the brightest bulbs in the batch. In fact, they didn’t even have a filament. And much worse, they were the only ones who didn’t realize it. These three girls were at the rear of the plane and figured they needed to get off first. I asked her what she was doing. She got red & nasty. Mindy quietly asked that I allow her to pass. She started quoting what the flight attendant had said. Others looked on in disbelief as she talked about needing to pee and such. They were awfully loud too. Obnoxious is most fitting. The rest of the passengers deboarded in an orderly fashion. We were asked to hang loose but close by. We did. I sat on the floor and eventually took a brief nap. Ended up only being a 40 minute delay. And because we were scheduled for a 3 hour layover in Chicago, we didn’t mind at all. I emailed Glenn about our flight delay. By the time we reboarded and then took off it was 8a or slightly after, and also completely cloudy. Couldn’t see any of the majestic Cascades peaking through like one can other times. Bummer! Like the trip out, I read and napped throughout the entire flight, though I was far more comfortable than I was flying out. Not sure why. Maybe because my wife was beside me. :) I ate my packed sandwich somewhere over eastern South Dakota. Unless I’m mistaken, we landed in Chicago at 2p CT. To kill the two hour layover, I wrote in my blog using Mindy’s laptop. The time flew by. Soon it was 4p and time to board for CMH. Where had the day gone? Because we’d be flying into wintry temps, they deiced our plane, but that took only a few minutes. Soon we were off and above the gray cloud cover over Chicago. Gorgeous sky! The sun was already setting. Again, where did our day go? A little more than an hour later we were making our final approach into CMH. We chuckled at the double cloud cover hovering over our fine city. One could see snow covering everything – a return to winter. Landed at 620p. We had our luggage and were on our way to the Blue lot shuttle 15 minutes later. $42 to park. Our Honda was covered in ice and snow. We agreed to take Tommy home saving someone else the burden of driving to the airport. Mindy phoned dad to let him know that we’d be home after dropping Tommy. The drive to Pick town to drop Tommy went faster than I thought it might be – 15 minutes. We arrived home just a couple minutes after 8p. Dad had the garage door open and waiting. Said he thought we might want to pull in, not realizing that we can’t park inside with the Thule on top. Immediately, he shared that the garage door wasn’t operating properly. Oh dear! Welcome home! I tried not to think about it. Bella heard me enter and came running and leaped into my arms. That was nice. Dad helped us carry in our stuff but then departed for home. Jacob was at a Blue Jackets game with his dad. He arrived home near 9p. Before then, I unpacked my suitcase and back pack and got into my PJs. Mindy was already busy packing the kids’ school lunches for the following day. Talk about jumping right back in the fire! Bella read to Mindy while I downloaded our vacation pictures. By the way, Bella had already brought Frankie home from Chrissy’s. I choked down a couple Advil determined to curb my shoulder pain. We headed to bed at 10p. It felt terrific to crawl into our own bed. Good night Bend!