Today Murphy’s Law seemed to be in full swing for me. First one of my patients woke up confused. Pulling off things that were needed. So a lot of work at work. I get done about 45 minutes late & go to get my lunch box from the break room. There is an Ebola PPE in service happening. So I have to do it. So at 9:30 am, I get to clock out (my shift technically ends at 7:15). I go home. I pack. I check the cat’s water and food and liter. I decided to take a nap until 3 pm. I normally have my alarm set for 3 pm. I needed to leave by 3:40 pm to get there for the flight the recommended 2 hours ahead. I have my alarm set for 2:30 pm & 3 pm. And I lay down with my phone beside me and I have it charging.
A FaceTime call woke me up. The call could not connect when I tried to answer it. But I quickly realized that it was 4:30 pm. I was probably out the door in under 10 minutes. I regret I did not have time to say bye to the boys. Anyway, drive from Las Cruces to El Paso. I figure an hour and will be there by 5:30 for my 6:40 flight. Tight but plenty of time. Before I even get out of New Mexico I hit traffic. Of course, there was construction. Down from 3 lanes to one. So I lost half an hour there. Some of my non-flying family may not realize that a 6:40 flight starts boarding at 6:10, closes the door around 6:30, and is in the air by 6:40. And they aren’t gonna wait on you. So my GPS past the construction says the estimated time of arrival at the parking is 6:10 and I know I will hit rush hour traffic. But Waze claims another route will get me there by 5:55. So I take it. I got to dreading the security line and how long the shuttle would take. I thought I would not make it, but I was giving it a good effort. Now, remember a lot of my airport experience deals with Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. Then I thought of Manchester, NH. The airport had just a few gates. Parking was quick and very close to the terminal. The lines were short. I was desperately hoping for a smaller airport that could do things quickly. I get to the airport’s long-term parking at 5:50. I find the shuttle stop and really hope one is coming soon. I was in luck. One was by in under a minute. And I got a speed demon of shuttle drivers. He wasn’t in danger of turning the shuttle over but you could tell he was turning. So by 6:00 PM, I am at the ticketing counter to pick up my boarding pass. No line. Go through security in about 5 minutes. Maybe a little less. I have time for the 1-minute dash into a store for bottled water. And I made it to the gate at 6:10. When I heard the boarding announcement.
I was still riding the panic through the El Paso to Phoenix flight. The layover didn’t calm me. On the flight from Phoenix to Long Beach, I was still riding the panic. Long Beach airport calmed me down. It is lovely and serene. Half of the airport is outside. There’s a building for security. Then you go outside (there’s an awning for rainy days) and to another building where you board or depart. I love it.
I priced the shuttle. $35 to my hotel. I knew Uber a few days ago was $20-27 so I checked and that was still the price. So I picked Uber instead of the shuttle. Got to the hotel. I ordered Chinese delivery. It was really good. Not greasy.
Fantastic!!! 🙂 awesome stuff 🙂