Saturday Quiet and planes

Time always seems to move strangely on a travel day. I woke up in room 101 and soon showered and all that. I had dreams, now forgotten, all pleasant. It was early still, but I am seldom tired in the morning. I can always nod off in a warm sunny moment in the afternoon, especially after a delicious lunch.

I managed to shove, crush, and climb on top of my luggage and close it. I also moved the travel books to my bag. My carry-on would be slightly lighter on the way back. Deborah and I were happy to spend the morning together; my original flight had me leaving in the morning. Delta rebooked me on the evening flight when something went wrong (I never learned what happened).

I checked out, with extended checkout, just after checkout time, as Deborah and I had decided on lunch and then a movie on her TV, The Italian Job. The movie features Mini Coopers.

Lunch was Chinese-style, and I had almond chicken plus egg foo young, while Deborah had lemon chicken. Much of it became leftovers after the soup, egg rolls, or crab rangoons, and then we received a large serving of chicken.

As we traveled in Ziggy, Deborah’s blue racing stripe Mini Cooper, we honked for the protesters against Trump’s policy on a busy corner. Yes, we are liberal. Deborah and I returned to her house.

We chatted with Liam and Donovan (Deborah’s sons) until they headed out. We were, as always happens, running out of time in the afternoon. We watched the movie and managed to get through about half of it.

We took my bags and loaded them into Ziggy’s trunk area. Deborah used a lint brush on me to remove the doggie glitter that her dogs Trixie and Zelda had shared with me. We stopped by to refuel Ziggy before heading to the Detroit airport.

We arrived at the airport and we both tried not to look sad. We had been together for two weeks in California, a few weeks before this latest over two-week trip; we were used to being together. Deborah dropped me off, and with a kiss, she was off in Ziggy.

I tagged my bag, but then I was confused by the signs and the process. I was in International Delta and was sent to the other side of the terminal when I got to the bag drop. Oops. There, I found another long line. I was next to a family with bags for all six of them to tag. They had not used the self-service stations to get their tags. Dad went off to do that while they were in line; I thought that was a good use of time. When he appeared with the newly printed tags, they did not know what to do. I demonstrated the process, using my ‘Dungeon Master to new players’ voice to them, and then again when one child was confused. It was fun to be the helpful tourist. I dropped off my bag, now in Domestic Delta, without issue.

Security had no lines, but it still required you to walk through a long maze and complete three empty loops. There were just two agents available to check your ID, but there was no wait. The carry-on check was easy this time. Laptop in. Shoes on. Scan showed that I still wear suspenders and that my pants bag around my boots. I wore my boots as they did not fit well in my checked bag.

I thanked the TSA officers for keeping us safe. One officer, whose break was starting, told me they were doing the best they could. He informed me that DOGE has forced a hiring freeze, and personnel have left, reducing staffing. He has worked four hours of mandated overtime (the later shift) to cover an understaffed situation at the previous midnight. He asked me to contact Kristi Noem to request assistance for the TSA officers at the airports. This was unsolicited. Yes, I was told we are running the TSA folks hard now. Fustrating!

I took the internal train from the airport to reach the distant A72 gate. I found a bar nearby and ordered a beer and a BBQ burger. I managed to get some BBQ sauce on my shirt sleeve, and June, the bartender, got me some soda water to clean up most of it. I could see my gate from my chair and took my time there.

I watched the weather as thunderstorms were headed towards us, but a break opened and we had sunbreaks in the clouds when we boarded. Before I boarded, I saw a small boy and his dad playing with a plane set that had obviously just arrived. There was an Air Force One, a Delta plane, and something else. The boy reasssembled it back into the packaging, but the planes went with him.

I found my seat without issue and was soon ready for five hours of movie watching and possibly a nap. There was an opening in the door seats, and one of the folks in my row got that seat. We then had a spare seat. I suggested that the tall woman near me take the aisle seat, which would make her more comfortable. I looked like Bilbo Baggins next to her, and older Bilbo. She agreed, and we had some spare room.

I watched One Hundred Steps, a lovely movie that Deborah suggested. It has cooking as an underlying theme. Recommended. I tried to watch an older SciFi film, Minority Report, but it was awful (I remembered being better but not great). I had coffee and ginger ale for my drinks on the plane, my go-tos for travel.

We landed early, and I was soon off the plane and enjoying the PDX long walks. My bag appeared.

Joan, who was tracking my flight and getting updates of my trip back to PDX, found me at location 5 and soon zoomed me back home. She kindly waited for me to get into the house before leaving.

The house is musty from being closed up for two weeks, but it’s nice to be home. I found my bed and soon fell asleep.

Thanks for reading!