Good morning Mary and Carol and all three of my other faithful followers. It has been a while, which is proof that I am alive and well and too busy to write. A good busy, living life in Florida, enjoying all my friends and family who are there. But once again I have returned to the frozen fields of Upper Michigan for a lovely cool summer. (I hope). Spending all that “ALONE” time on the farm with just “The Man” , a herd of deer, wild turkeys, bald eagles, sand cranes, geese, birds galore and a whacked out squirrel who is in competition with Chippy the Chipmunk to see who can steal all the bird seed that lands on the ground leaves me with a lot of free time. It also provides me with a constant flow of materiel for blogs so hopefully you will hear from me more often. Sadly we did loose one of my most faithful followers just this past week. My cousin Ann, who was 3 years younger than me passed away rather suddenly. Even though she was forever correcting my spelling and grammar I will miss her a lot. Say a prayer for her please.
BUT . . . on to the topic at hand. My trip to Atlanta to see my oldest grand daughter graduate from high school. My little Abby is graduating !!!!!! How the hell did that happen ? She was just born yesterday, or so it seems. I vividly remember meeting her for the first time just days after she was born. My heart was over whelmed with love for this little person. I remember every precious visit we had with her these past 17 years and this past Tuesday I shared this momentous occasion with her and her family. WOW ! This is blowing my mind ! In a good way. I can’t wait to see what she will do next!
And that brings me to my trip from Escanaba MI to Atlanta GA. Traveling ANYWHERE from Gladstone or Escanaba MI is an adventure. These two little towns are so far away from the rest of the world it takes hours to get to “civilization”. So when I knew I would be going to see Abby I got out my credit card, mortgaged the house, sold my car and most of my bodily organs so that I might afford the plane ticket. ((Not really, thanks to covid I had not traveled much and HAD shopped a LOT so I had plenty of Delta sky miles to pay for the trip. What I did not plan on was the convoluted way Delta arranges their flights. Especially ones that begin at Escanaba airport. This “airport” has one runway that is just long enough to accommodate a small jet. The one room terminal does not open its “security” until 20 minutes before take off so there is no need to arrive early. The loading of baggage and passengers takes all of three minutes and off we go. Our next stop, Iron Mountain, MI. which is West of Gladstone. Dwayne and I drive to Iron Mountain at least twice a month because that is where the closest VA hospital is located. It is a one hour drive. It is a 14 minute plane ride. That is the shortest flight I have ever been on. The one stewardess barely had time to go over the take off speech before she was giving the landing speech. And no, there was no in flight food service! Once we landed in Iron Mountain airport which as far as I could tell is maybe slightly larger than Escanaba but still only one room half the passengers got off and just as many got on. (That would be about ten people. This plane is SMALL) Now we take off going further West to get to Minneapolis Saint Paul airport. ( I would like to mention here that Atlanta is EAST of Gladstone while this entire time I have been in a plane that is flying WEST! ) After about an hour we arrived at Minneapolis.
And this is where we get to the driving part of my story. Minneapolis airport is just slightly larger than Escanaba and Iron Mountain by about 12 GAZZILLION times ! I have been to this airport just once before in my life and it is huge and spread out in all directions. Last time I was there I almost missed my connecting flight because I only had an hour to get from one gate to another. So when we landed and taxied for 20 minutes I knew I was in trouble again. I swear to you that from the time the plane touched down to the time we got to a gate we drove at least twenty miles. Runway after runway passing terminal after terminal. Sure enough I get off the plane and look at what gate I am at. GATE A 17. I start walking till I can find one of those wonderful screens that will tell me where my connecting flight will be leaving from. The screen is one that displays about 25 flights at a time and then every 7 seconds scrolls on to the next 25 and so on and so on. The first time Atlanta rolled around I missed my flight number because there were at least 10 Atlanta flights. Second time around I found my flight listed but missed what gate it was departing from. Third time was a charm and I got the information I needed . . . Gate G 18 !! ALL the way a at the other end of the airport. So I started walking and walking and walking. Finally I came to a tram station that would take me from gates “A” to gates “G”. Or so I thought. Funny joke . . . One stop later at gates “B” there was the announcement to "depart here for gates B AND G”. WAIT ?? WHAT ??? Did that just say “get off here for gate “G” ??? But I only went one stop ?? I stuck my head out to look at the signs in the terminal and sure enough there were arrows pointing to gate G. At the last second before the tram doors closed I jumped off and started walking again. Up the escalator and turn right and walk and walk some more. Three days later (not really but it felt like it) sure enough I arrived at gate G18. It seems that gates G are on the other side of the road from where I got off the last plane. This airport is weird!
I did make it to my connecting flight with plenty of time to spare but with sore feet and an elevated blood pressure along with the need to pee.
Once I was on the plane to Atlanta we taxied another half hour before taking off. Arriving at Atlanta brought me to another marathon walking to the train that will take me from what ever terminal I was in to baggage claim. Good thing I had my Wheaties for breakfast. (If you find my picture on a cereal box you will know why.)
Lucky for me my wonderful son drove all the way down to the airport to pick me up and drop me off so at least I wasn't walking up and down the Marta station waiting for a train to take me to and from the airport.
My trip home from Atlanta was just as crazy as the trip there. Thankfully the flights were all ON TIME but once again I ran the Airport Marathon 2023 trying to get from the INSANE security check in Atlanta at terminal G to the total opposite end of the airport terminal T where my plane would leave from. Then arriving at Gates C in Minneapolis and hiking to Gate A to catch my flight back to Iron Mt. and Escanaba. (It doesn't sound far but take my word for it, IT IS !) I must have looked pretty haggard by the time I got off the Flight at gate C because I hadn't gone far when a very nice gentleman in an airport "golf cart" called to me asking if I wanted a ride. HELL YES !!! After I stopped hugging him I climbed on board and off we flew driving miles and miles through this endless terminal. And again, once on the plane we taxied for about 15 minutes before the plane actually took off. (I actually timed it and it was exactly 14 min and 37 seconds of "driving" before finally getting around to flying.)
But now I am home and I do not plan on driving or flying ANYWHERE for at least a week.
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