Saturday, December 7, 2019

More Travel Tales

Hello,



As we waited to get on the plane we became aware of more and more dense fog covering the airport. “Does fog affect take off?” Leroy wondered.



Yes it does. We got on the plane, but sat by the gate for almost half an hour. Safety must come first, but it was a bit anxious because we only had 45 minutes for our connection in Minneapolis. On the first trip we had to traverse a good bit of the airport because one plane is big and one is much smaller.



We exchanged gifts at our Thanksgiving. I received one of those grabber things that can go into narrow spaces. This one was not collapsible and measured 33 inches from tip to handle. Our children probably brought it in a larger check in bag. We do not have a check in bag so I had to carry because it was much larger than my carry on. I thought it might not be allowed on the plane either by TSA or the carrier, but no one objected. Carrying it to the airport on the train was not a problem. After I took off my coat at the airport and had to carry my coat, pull one bag and had the other bag  on my back, that long object was a bit more problematic. I certainly did not want to poke someone with it and it was hard to keep it in my hand with the slippery coat.



On the airplane they told me to put it in the overhead bin so that was not an issue.



In Minnesota, it took us a while to get off the plane because we were almost in the last row. Leroy commented shortly before we landed that he needed to go to the restroom. Luckily I had gone earlier on the plane. The flight attendant had told us how to get to our connecting flight so that would not take so long as when we have to search out directions. We had to use the train, but just missed one. Supposedly they come every three minutes. It seemed to be a much longer interval as we waited, knowing that we had little time.



We hopped on the train when it arrived and got off spotting the direction sign easily. The first moving sidewalk was broken on our side so we just walked fast. It is not so easy to move speedily when gripping so many things which bang against my legs from time to time. Leroy, who could go faster, did not get on the next moving sidewalk so I did not either as I was not sure I could maintain balance with all my things and grip the railing. Coming within two numbers of our gate a woman stepped out of that area and called to us, “Cedar Rapids?”



We yelled, “Yes,” while we kept trotting. Amazingly the hall was almost empty so it all worked for us to arrive gasping for breath.



Paula

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