Travel Day

Travel days are always interesting. There's always some weird thing that happens. Yesterday was no exception.

We had one last great meeting session in the morning for our small but mighty Canadian team.  People were starting to leave throughout the day, but we didn't have to leave the office until 2 PM.

I can't say enough about how wonderful and inspiring that trip was. I'm so full of ideas that my head needs a wee bit of downtime.

As we left the hotel in the morning, we decided to take one other person with us as our flights were about the same time. We had an SUV but it really wasn't a huge one and we already had three suitcases in the back plus our smaller bags. I'm trying to go as light as possible so I had one big one (I HATE it) and my backpack.

We managed to cram everything into the car (we still had one more suitcase to get that was still at the office) and we got four people in the car. I had bags on my lap and at my feet, as did everyone else except the driver.

Suitcases jammed into the car

Looking into the trunk area

When we left the office, the extra suitcase went in the backseat between myself and Carrie. Needless to say - I didn't see Carrie for the entire trip to the airport.

We arrived at the airport and got all the luggage in and with the appropriate airlines for everyone. I helped Carrie with her three suitcases - that's just way too much luggage.

We parted ways and the Canadian team went through security. Now here's the thing - I have TSA pre-check so things should be quick. I put my bags on the X-ray machine and walked through. BEEP. Oh no - I've been selected for a more thorough security check so I get to go through the big X-ray machine.

I forgot that it takes just seconds to scan so I'm standing there with my hands crossed over my head and the security officer is saying "Ma'am - you can get out now". Ooops - so I go out and OH NO - I got a big yellow caution sign on my crotch. What???  Yep - I was wearing a pair of pants that well - they are loose and they had fallen somewhat. I was advised to pull them up and go back again. This time I got the green light. So if you have saggy pants - pull them up before going through the security.

We had loads of time to kill (I wasn't the driver) and we wandered around and had a peek in a couple of clothing stores that had some amazing ideas for embroidered clothing. Well - perhaps we shouldn't have been snapping pictures, but I did. As you get older, you have no inhibitions, although I think the staff caught on and were watching us. So I took pictures on the sly.

At last onto the airplane and had a seat to myself. With all that walking, I was over 10,000 steps so that was good as I had to make up some time from earlier in the week when I just eeked out 10K per day. By the way - our little virtual challenge team? Are they competitive? Oh god no! So why was Shelly out in the rain this morning and at 7:20, sending us a video of her after she had completed 10,000 steps for the day? Hello?????   This is a personal challenge where we get to encourage each other as we go - that's not encouraging!!!  I refuse to do that! I will achieve my 10,000 plus steps in my daily activity.

Although I will say that last night, I took the girls for a long walk. They don't get walked when I'm away and they were like two crazies when I got home. It was a beautiful night and I ended up with 17,000 steps. I think that spurred Shelly on!

But back to the airport. It was foggy as heck when we arrived. We couldn't see the lights until we were practically on the runway. We had to wait and wait - first on the tarmac as the gate wasn't ready and then at the gate because they couldn't get power to the gateway to get us off the plane. At last, we were free from the plane. We must have done over 2,000 steps to get from the plane to customs. Up the stairs and back down the stairs. Then up more stairs and then back down. It's really quite a convoluted path and it seems to get longer and more convoluted every time I fly.

We arrived at customs to find only TWO NEXUS machine working. People were NOT happy. So that took some time. Matter of fact, Emily got through regular customs faster than I did. That's total craziness. They better get those machines fixed and fast because people were angry! By the time I arrived at the baggage carousel, I didn't' have to wait for my luggage. Oh yeah!!

The blog is late today and you know why? I didn't sync my Fitbit so when I came upstairs and saw that it was 7 AM, NOT 6 AM, I almost died! I'm still in the Nashville time zone. But I did get a good part of a quilt cut out this morning. I need to get it sewn together today and onto the long arm. Lots of opportunities to listen to my audiobook and get steps back and forth to the ironing board.

On that note, the girls are pacing and I'd better go!!!

Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!