Traveling Tales

Hello,

I am happy to be back in my own space. Getting there did have some interesting moments.

The train is my method of getting to the airport if the times work and they did. I needed to be at the TRAX station at 6:30 am. Miriam set an alarm so she could get up at 6:10, but I needed more time to take a shower, etc. Well I did not set the alarm in my room because I remembered having some difficulty turning it off. Also I did not use the alarm on my phone because it is set at quite a loud sound.  I was too lazy to do something about that and again I did not want to wake the whole house. Consequently I woke frequently during the night to check the time with the result that I spent little time dreaming. Because Miriam and Andy had just gone through 12 time zones they were awake when I got out of the shower as were the girls. I was able to catch the train without problem.

It is a long walk between the train stop and the airport terminal that I was flying from this time. So I got to the airport much too early, but it was not bad. I decided to stand around rather than sit because as you know most of the time spent on a plane is sitting.

Before standing around I went through security. This time I got no special treatment and had to take off shoes, empty pockets, and look innocent. There was a grey haired, but spry man ahead of me who seemed to be struggling with something. A young sophisticated woman asked if she could help. “Yes, help me get my boots off,” he said as he turned his back and thrust his bent leg in her direction.

She valiantly grabbed hold, pulling, and tugging with much effort. Finally she said, “I think a man will have to do this.”

Another gray haired guy that I had earlier seen with him came over from another line, yanked off first one boot, took a deep and then grabbed the other. Grinning at the man behind me, I commented that these were not airport boots. To which the now bootless man interjected that in Texas all airports have boot jacks in the security lines.

Later when the man was out of hearing range, the young woman asked me, “What is a boot jack?”

I explained to the best of my ability as we enjoyed another laugh.

Paula