As I walked to my gate at the Wichita airport, I noticed the quietness of the morning. Everyone must still be waking up, I thought. I found a seat to start one of the many "waits" of the day. Before long two women and a man sat down close by. The older woman was not having any trouble waking up (or maybe she was trying to keep herself awake), for she kept up a steady stream of conversation with her companions. I was sitting there half listening and suddenly realized altho' the others had departed, this woman was still talking. And she wasn't talking to me. I guess if there's no one else to talk to, you just talk to yourself!
The first leg of my journey was uneventful and my seatmate wasn't any more inclined to early morning chatter than I was. At 8 a.m I landed in Memphis and had a leisurely time eating my 2nd breakfast consisting of banana and "airplane" cookies. (By the way, did you know that the earlier you get up in the morning, the more you can eat in a day??) I killed two and a half hours there and by 10:30 was on my way to Minneapolis.
On this flight I was seated by a very talkative lady. She pretty much kept things going for that 2-hour flight. When I was sleeping, she talked to the man on her right and vice versa. I had a good little nap but when the snacks came around she kindly woke me up so I wouldn't miss them. Never mind that I needed sleep much more than snacks! After awhile I got out my sudoku puzzles and she pulled out her crossword puzzle book. And so, side by side, we worked our puzzles, now and then pausing to help the other one out.
Ahhh...Minneapolis at last! How could it only be 12:30? I thought it must be time for another meal and so I bought a $3 hamburger at A&W and devoured that along with the "healthy" food I had packed in my bag, namely an apple and carrot sticks. Here I had a 2-hour lay-over and something like a 2 mile hike (or so it seemed) to my next gate.
By 2:30 I was on the last leg of my journey and, feeling rather weary, I settled down for a good nap. Upon arriving at International Falls, low in the hole, there was no one to greet me, only the other teacher from MN who wanted a ride as well and so we sat and waited together. We sat there (or shall I say paced) for another 45 minutes until they did appear. I sighed with relief and thought that at last we were on the homeward stretch, not realizing there was one more hurdle to cross. At the border we were kindly detained and sent in for questioning, to wait some more while they checked out our papers.
Needless to say, it was nearly 9 p.m. by the time I made my appearance in Hudson. I was warmly welcomed, to put it mildly, and got there just in time for rhubarb pie and ice cream.
And so after catching up on all the news, I at last dragged my weary body to bed and thought, This has been a very long day!
