On March 18th, I was fortunate enough to fly to Vegas to visit with Tyler. The plan was for me to fly on Thursday, the 18th, spend some time with Tyler and get a few things done for him that we had wanted to do. On Sunday the 21st, Dennis was going to fly in Vegas and spend the last two days with me before we flew home together on Tuesday.
What a long day it was. I had to work for a bit in the morning and then be at the airport at 12:30 to catch my flight. I had a crazy flight route that I was taking to get to Vegas; first (and only) stop was San Francisco!
Now anybody that knows me well, knows that I am not the most comfortable flier. I fuss, worry and stress usually until the plane has taken off, then I settle in a little bit. The plane to San Francisco was a very small plane only two seats on each side and only about 20 rows. We were into the flight about 15-20 minutes, the stewardess (are they still called that?) was rolling the cart up the very narrow aisle, handing out drinks. She was at the row of seats right in front of me when a huge noise/crash was felt under my feet. The guy in front of me looked up at the stewardess and asked “what was that?” She proceeded to tell him that we probably hit a bird. Was that suppose to make us feel better? It may just have been a “coincidence”, but we started getting tremendous turbulence right after that!! All I could do was look at the window at all the snow on the mountains below us and wonder how they hell I was going to survive if we crashed because I was only wearing sandals on my feet! :D Like that was the least of my problems! After I got over that initial shock I tried to settle in for the rest of the flight.
As we got closer to our destination I could see the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Wow! It reminded me how much I enjoyed growing up near the ocean. It was beautiful! Then I could see the airport runway coming right off of the bay. I really mean “right off of the bay”….it was amazing…..water was surrounding the runway on three sides. We flew past the runway, which seemed like forever and then turned and came back for the landing into San Francisco. We flew over the bay for a long time. It was pretty intimidating to someone like me, who hates to fly. All I could think about, as we got closer and closer to the water, was how frightening it must have been for the people on the flight that crashed/landed on the Hudson River. I can’t even imagine what was going through their minds…okay maybe I can!
We landed safely in San Francisco. I have never been to California before. I know just being in the airport probably doesn’t count as “being in California”. But it was still nice to see the Pacific Ocean and say that I have been there.
I had about an hour layover, then I had the “honor” of being patted down by TSA before I boarded my flight to Vegas. It seemed ridiculous that they were pulling people aside ( it was probably for training) since we all had already been through security. They pulled me aside, pat me down and didn’t even check the bags I am carrying on the plane. Just seems a little strange.
Only about an hour after boarding the plane, the Vegas strip come into view from the plane. It is pretty funny flying into Vegas. Everybody on the plane is smiling and appear to be ready for a good time.
It was quite a process: get off the plane, take the tram to baggage, go outside and find the shuttle bus to take me to the rental car area, get the rental car and find my way to the hotel.
I was so excited to be in Vegas to spend some time with Tyler. As I finally settled in for my short drive to the hotel I decided: I worry too much!
With Love,
Tina
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