Winter Trip
So this week I'm off to Iowa to visit my former roomate and our friend Barry Alexander - yes, the Barry of "All The Right Places" fame ... well to people who read gay smut it's fame anyhow. I've been taking winter trips for the past few years now, and getting completely away from the Deep South and visiting new places and old friends really seems to help control my winter-time depression.
Since Iowa actually has that cold white stuff that has been rumored to fall on places other than the Deep South in the winter, I thought it'd be a good time to visit Dave and Bar.
I got to Charlotte airport right after lunch, and immediately sensed that this was not going to be one of those smooth trips: as soon as I found the gate and sat down to open my paperback book, they announced a gate change - fortunately just across the room, but everyone had to get up and change seats. Then the pilot came in and announced a flat tire. THEN after 15 minutes he came back and announced they'd had no luck finding a replacement tire, and were anticipating a three to four hour delay to change tires! American then started trying to re-route all of us who had tight connecting flights in St.Louis, and I was lucky enough to get a Delta flight that was only an hour behind our original departure time. I had just enough time to get another cup of coffee, visit the Little Tourist Room, and read another chapter in the book before we started boarding.
Of course, my luggage took a mini-vacation without me.
I got to Cedar Rapids without incident, only an hour later than planned, which was fine. Barry met me, as Dave hates to drive after dark, plus they had about six inches of snow on the roads. We waited by the baggage claim, watched all the other luggage get claimed, and failed to see the LL Bean Aloha Duffels roll past us. Just to be sure, we waited through the next set of tourists. Nope, my luggage went somewhere without me.
We drove back to Waterloo (yes, this is me singing that old Abba song half the way there) and had a very late dinner at IHOP, then I checked into my hotel (friends 'n family rate compliments of my buddy J) and slipped into a coma. Going to work at 9pm, doing a 12-hour shift, then leaving for Iowa at lunch and not arriving until 9pm (10pm EST) has a tendency to really take it out of you. Sometime in the wee hours of the am, all those cups of coffee from IHOP needed to have a word with me in the bathroom, and when I staggered back to bed I noticed it had started snowing again. Lovely. Even if I did have to stand at the window nekkid to watch it.
Thursday we stopped at WalMart, got a packet of underwear and some socks. The airport phoned just as I was shopping for deoderant and such, letting me know that my errant bags had just arrived and they anticipated delivery sometime that afternoon. We spent the morning wandering around in the snow, which continued to fall until evening. Got some great photos which I'll post in my scrapbook ASAP, and got lots of exercise trudging through calf-deep snowdrifts.
When it got to be mid-afternoon, I called the airport back. Oh, we're really busy today, we'll get those bags to you though, it might be after dark however. Fine, I'm just tired of wearing the same damn clothes for the third day. At 9:45pm I called AGAIN. You don't mind if we wait til the morning, do you? Actually, yes I do mind, and I'll tell the hotel manager to phone my room as soon as you arrive. It was nearly midnight, but I finally got clean clothes to change into. I most nobly restrained the smart arse comments to the delivery guy and just thanked him before dragging my luggage away.
Today we're going back into Cedar Rapids coz it's the final day to see the original "American Gothic" painting at the museum - it's here for some kind of anniversary I believe. The author, Grant Wood, was a Cedar Rapids native.
Tomorrow is my birthday (also gredandforge's as well) - I'm celebrating by going out to dinner and then to see both a repeat of Goblet as well as catching the new Narnia film (which looks good). More journaling later
Since Iowa actually has that cold white stuff that has been rumored to fall on places other than the Deep South in the winter, I thought it'd be a good time to visit Dave and Bar.
I got to Charlotte airport right after lunch, and immediately sensed that this was not going to be one of those smooth trips: as soon as I found the gate and sat down to open my paperback book, they announced a gate change - fortunately just across the room, but everyone had to get up and change seats. Then the pilot came in and announced a flat tire. THEN after 15 minutes he came back and announced they'd had no luck finding a replacement tire, and were anticipating a three to four hour delay to change tires! American then started trying to re-route all of us who had tight connecting flights in St.Louis, and I was lucky enough to get a Delta flight that was only an hour behind our original departure time. I had just enough time to get another cup of coffee, visit the Little Tourist Room, and read another chapter in the book before we started boarding.
Of course, my luggage took a mini-vacation without me.
I got to Cedar Rapids without incident, only an hour later than planned, which was fine. Barry met me, as Dave hates to drive after dark, plus they had about six inches of snow on the roads. We waited by the baggage claim, watched all the other luggage get claimed, and failed to see the LL Bean Aloha Duffels roll past us. Just to be sure, we waited through the next set of tourists. Nope, my luggage went somewhere without me.
We drove back to Waterloo (yes, this is me singing that old Abba song half the way there) and had a very late dinner at IHOP, then I checked into my hotel (friends 'n family rate compliments of my buddy J) and slipped into a coma. Going to work at 9pm, doing a 12-hour shift, then leaving for Iowa at lunch and not arriving until 9pm (10pm EST) has a tendency to really take it out of you. Sometime in the wee hours of the am, all those cups of coffee from IHOP needed to have a word with me in the bathroom, and when I staggered back to bed I noticed it had started snowing again. Lovely. Even if I did have to stand at the window nekkid to watch it.
Thursday we stopped at WalMart, got a packet of underwear and some socks. The airport phoned just as I was shopping for deoderant and such, letting me know that my errant bags had just arrived and they anticipated delivery sometime that afternoon. We spent the morning wandering around in the snow, which continued to fall until evening. Got some great photos which I'll post in my scrapbook ASAP, and got lots of exercise trudging through calf-deep snowdrifts.
When it got to be mid-afternoon, I called the airport back. Oh, we're really busy today, we'll get those bags to you though, it might be after dark however. Fine, I'm just tired of wearing the same damn clothes for the third day. At 9:45pm I called AGAIN. You don't mind if we wait til the morning, do you? Actually, yes I do mind, and I'll tell the hotel manager to phone my room as soon as you arrive. It was nearly midnight, but I finally got clean clothes to change into. I most nobly restrained the smart arse comments to the delivery guy and just thanked him before dragging my luggage away.
Today we're going back into Cedar Rapids coz it's the final day to see the original "American Gothic" painting at the museum - it's here for some kind of anniversary I believe. The author, Grant Wood, was a Cedar Rapids native.
Tomorrow is my birthday (also gredandforge's as well) - I'm celebrating by going out to dinner and then to see both a repeat of Goblet as well as catching the new Narnia film (which looks good). More journaling later