Day 19
Eight o'clock came early for this body,
still on Hawaiian time.
No coffee was available, can you
believe it? I’ve stayed in lots of hotels and motels, from the cheap to the
five star, and never have I stayed in a room with no free coffee-maker.
Astonishing! In spite of a room price of $238, we were obliged to pack up,
vacate our room and buy their expensive Starbucks coffee in the lobby.
My half-jest to Dave was, “We
could have stayed at the Motel 8, been picked up faster, and had free coffee
and breakfast.”
Later a fellow passenger told me
that they had the “upgrade” which allowed them to take the elevator to another
floor to a room where there was free coffee and breakfast. For $238 you don’t
get the upgrade—what tha’ heck?
Well…hey… like I said: flexible people equals
happy vacationers. Right?
At the terminal we sailed right through check-in
and security with more than an hour to spare. This would have been the perfect
occasion to use my one annual free-entry pass to the US Airways lounge which I carried
with me for the whole trip. Unfortunately it was in my checked bag, already
gone into the bowels of the terminal. Sigh.
Oh well, the American gate was upgraded with rather comfy seats grouped two to
a table. We were fine. I pulled out my paperback book, eager to learn whether
the hero and heroine survived the plane crash.
Later: It doesn’t do well to
drink too much liquid before and during a flight. Why? So far, two hours into
the flight, the captain still has the seat belt sign on, concerned over every
little bump. So, he thinks this is turbulence? Ha! Barely causes a ripple in
the apple juice glass.
Our flight across America to
Chicago was uneventful. I even managed a small nap. Read some more on my novel,
and this time, passengers were allowed to use laptops. Yippee. I spent some
time editing Ron Shaw’s latest book, The Yellow Bus Boys Go Blue, and writing in this travel journal.
The sprawling Chicago terminal
required us to walk rather quickly from the end of Concourse H, through the
main terminal, passed many shops of all kinds, to the far end of Concourse G—actually
walk, that is. No automatic walkways. I tried to stop at the farmer’s market to
buy some food, but Dave urged me onward.
Arriving at Gate 43A, right on
schedule, we noted that our plane had not started boarding. And so, rather
huffily, I helped myself to my own wallet and left to buy food in the nearest
store. Dave was not hungry, or so he insisted. Nevertheless, when I returned
with a piece of apple pie and some Skittles for him, he licked it up, pronto.
My fare was Greek Yogurt and sliced apples with caramel dip.
On the final leg of our journey,
ORD to GRR, we finished off our last three rather crumbled homemade bars that
we had carefully hoarded, plus one banana. Our plane landed in Grand Rapids,
just a little bit early. After we collected our bags, called the shuttle and
picked up our car, we were on the way home by nine o’clock. Lordy, how sweet it
was to find our car unblemished and firing up on the first try!
Perhaps Dave was a bit too
relaxed and relieved to be safely home, behind the wheel of his own vehicle, because
when he pulled into the first available McDonald’s he made the mistake of
entering the exit drive. Thank God, the alert driver in the opposing lane
reacted quickly and veered away.
“Dave,” I calmly noted, “that’s
the exit drive.”
“Oh so it is,” he replied dryly.
“Perhaps you had better pay
attention,” I offered.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” he
grinned.
After that he paid excellent
attention and got us home safely. After unloading the car and carrying in the
accumulated boxes, delivered in our absence, one of Dave’s first activities was
to raid the ice cream container, awaiting him in the freezer.
Safely home, at last.
Would we change anything about
this vacation? Probably not. But, next time, we will not go through San
Francisco. It was fun, but once was enough. And, I probably wouldn’t stay at the LAX Marriott.
We might try a different hotel, or fly straight through. I found the overnight
stay to be a combination of restful and stressful. The hassle of getting
luggage and shuttles to and from the airport partially offsets the gain of an
overnight rest.
Besides, Dave did not sleep well
in the Marriott. He is usually restless before a trip, thinking and ruminating
over the next day’s responsibilities.
Now that he is home, he has
settled right into Michigan time, off to bed and snuggled down by 11:15 PM,
which would be only 5:15 PM in Hawaii, whereas I’m still up at 12:45 AM. My
bags are almost all unpacked. I will sleep and sleep well, later.
=₪₴₪₴₪₴₪=
Dear Reader: I hope you have enjoyed this peek
into our 19 Day Hawaii vacation. In a few weeks it will be published in paperback and
in Ebook form, and featured, along with five other travel books on our web
site, www.mercerpublications.com,
as well as Amazon.com. Feel free to look those over and check out our other How
To books, biographies and Mike McBride novels as well. They make great gifts.
Mahalo
No comments:
Post a Comment