Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone!

My Chicago trip was excellent, but I never took the camera out of my suitcase, so no pictures at all this time. Time just went too fast. I somehow lost an hour while getting ready to leave and barely made it to the airport in time. Luckily I was through security in less than five minutes. I am not sure if that makes Detroit more or less scary.

We went shopping, saw the sights a little, and then it was time to go home. Somehow in that short period of time I managed to stub my bad toe really hard, and was concerned I might end up in emergency, but it is maybe healing now.

Going home was the difficult part for me. Chicago security pulled me over and told me I had a forbidden item in my luggage and they had to search it. It seems I had my embroidery scissors in my cosmetic bag, so they confiscated them with my sincere apologies. Then I sat in the airport with my friend for an hour or two until his flight. Then I walked down the concourse about ten miles or so to my terminal to wait over an hour more for my flight. It is a big airport. The flight was announced as being on time. I had a new suitcase and had taken it as a carry on, but the plane was a puddle jumper with very small overhead bins, so they took away all our pilot bags and checked them on.

We sat on the plane for an hour. Then the steward announced that the plane had too much fuel and they had to drain from both sides. Lovely. Then he announced that they had compression problems and they had called mechanics who would tell us in ten minutes if it would be a quick fix or not. The third announcement was that the fix was not happening fast, we were being deplaned, and we should find alternate means of travel. Bye, bye.

While we waited for our luggage to be returned, I noticed one of the fellow travelers worked for the airline and asked her advice, since they didn't tell us what to do at all. She told me that we were re-booked on another flight, gave me the info, and a phone number to call. Of course, this terminal was back the ten miles plus a few more past where I had waited with my friend earlier.

This flight was running late. By the time I got on the plane, I had been in the airport almost 7 hours, had nothing to eat since breakfast, and was getting a bit strung out. I finally was able to reach my friends with my dogs and told them I would be late, maybe midnight instead of 8 pm.

When we were due to land, we had an announcement that we were too close to the plane in front of us and we would be spending another ten minutes or so in the air first. This was all for a 45 minute flight. I was very happy to finally get to the shuttle bus for the off-site parking, but I still had 100 miles to drive before getting home. It was raining, foggy, and late.

After driving through the city of Detroit, two other counties, fog, and just missing a deer, I got my dogs in the car. Molly settled right in, even though she normally whines and shakes in the car. Baby, who normally loves the car and eventually falls asleep, was hyperventilating, shaking, and showing way too much white in her eyes.

I dodged another deer, an opossum and a pretty black cat in the road. There was heavy fog on the rolling hills out in the country. Some where along a winding curve around a lake (it's hard to drive 3 miles in this state without seeing a lake) I realized I was no longer distressed. I was on An Adventure. I turned up the radio and sang. Baby finally calmed down. Molly smiled at me.

Alas, my accommodating friends have had a family emergency in the meantime and probably cannot watch my beagles again in the near future. Those of you who pray, please remember my wonderful friends! I had that creative trip planned next week that included taking my daughter and her gf to Las Vegas, and then hopping over to Los Angeles for part of the time, leaving them to find all the hot bars in Las Vegas while I was gone. I had a very difficult time finding a dog sitter. I begged my one niece to quit school (she is 14) and stay with my dogs.

I finally corralled my 19 year old nephew into staying at my house and dealing with Molly's medication and the fact that the dogs insist on sleeping under the covers with a human.

Delighted, I called my daughter to be sure all is a go before I confirmed any reservations for travel. Nope. She doesn't think they will be able to get the time off work. It took me too long to find a new dog sitter. Sigh. I am sad about losing The Next Adventure, but my wings might be clipped this time. There will be more. They will be even better. Maybe they won't involve playing dodge-ems with wildlife in the middle of the night on unpaved country roads.