For me to travel anywhere is unusual. So when my sister asked if I would fly to NY to be with Mom, who cannot be by herself, to visit my Brother, I said sure. The fact that Mom is paying for the trip (and I am retired and on limited income) helped as well.

I decided to start a journal – actually, I had my laptop with me for the trip, and I don’t know, I guess I was more attentive to things as I drove to the airport. Did most of the first day’s writing at the airport – so I wanted to share. I will make several posts – hopefully I’ll have a lot of stories to tell.

Day 1

I’m always amazed when spring arrives. In our area of the southeastern area of Virginia, spring arrives with the white blossoms of the Bradford pear tree. And the pink blossoms of the red bud tree. While the Bradford pear is beautiful and the shape is well turned, the red bud is my favorite. I love the heart shaped leaves and have always wanted one. Several years ago, we planted one, but having dogs in the yard did nothing for the tree even tho it was staked up and had a chicken wire fence around it. To say that we gave up is an understatement, because we nursed it along for a couple of seasons, and even so, it died. We haven’t tried another one. Kind of a sad statement, but I didn’t want to be disappointed again.

Today, as I was driving out of town, to go the Norfolk airport, the Bradford pear trees were in almost full bloom, and it gave my heart lift. The last few days of really warm weather, is what signaled the trees to show off! And as happens every year, here in Suffolk, we have a cold snap coming which hopefully will be done by the time I come home.

You see – I’m going to fly to New York to visit my brother. My Mom, who lives in Ohio, with my sister – is flying to meet me in New York, and my brother – who lives in White Plains- will be picking us up, for a 5 day visit.
We will both be returning home on Tuesday.

To say that this is a very anticipated visit is to make light of it. I haven’t seen my brother in 3-4 years, when his son – my nephew – Bens bar mitzvah. He is now a senior in high school. His sister, Emma had her bat mitzvah a couple of years earlier – so we will be seeing the whole family. BTW I’m the oldest of 3. I’m 8 years older than my brother – since I’m 62, will be 63 this year, that makes him 35 – which his birthday was the past Monday.

I have to tell you that I don’t like to fly. I guess it’s the issue where I’m not in control – and I have a hard time with that. And I have so much I haven’t done yet.

Be that as it may, I wandered around the house this morning, getting last minute emails answered, and other tasks. But I was just really making time. I had to leave the house at 1:30pm – in order to check in by 2:15 – 2:30 for a 4:15 flight. It’s never crowded at the airport if you get there in plenty of time.

I left the house at 12:30 – needed to stop at Fedex to take a prepaid order, I stopped at Salvation Army to donate a few things, and then I was off. I figured, check in early, get something to eat – all I had was a half sandwich peanut butter and jelly for lunch. And then sit and write or read for awhile until the plane was ready to board.

I don’t have one of those extended batteries for my laptop…mmm… might want to get one if I take another trip  – because when the words flow, I like to go with it, and not have to jot notes to myself on paper.

Ok, so I get to the airport before 2:15. Everything is easy – I already printed out my boarding pass – in retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have. The flight is on time, and I go to get something to eat. And I pass the time reading and eating some chicken tortialla soup – one of my favorites.

Ok, time to mosey to the gate – and as I pass one of the departure screens – it now says – flight is delayed until 4:55. Now you might not think that was a problem, except – I was supposed to get to the NY airport  before Mom – whose plane gets in at 6pm. I was supposed to get there first, so that I could meet her coming off the plane and help her. she uses a walker and is not too sure of herself.

The girl at the ticket counter/check in desk says that the plane has maintenance problems, and won’t get here until 4:55 and then it would be about 15-20 minutes before the plane would be ready to leave. Ok, so that would put me into NY about 6:30.

Then I was told about a flight that was leaving at 3:30 – it’s now 3:15, going to DC and get into NY about 6:15 - so much the better. I get a boarding ticket for that flight -only to be told that the plane was been downed for maintenance. Hey this is not the 13th yet – that’s tomorrow.

So it’s back to a flight that leaves at 5:15 and gets to NY at 7pm.

I’ve been talking with my sister several times since the first flight – and now Mom says she could stay in the hotel by herself one night. In case I can’t get there until tomorrow. Believe me, I’d rather get there today – but I sure don’t want to get in at 9 or 10pm. I know my brother doesn’t like to drive to the city – and certainly not home late at night.

Well, at about 4:15 I got up to find the rest room, and was walking past the gate where the original flight was supposed to leave – and the lady at the counter motioned me over and said the plane was due in any minute and would leave about 4:40. So now I’m booked on the original plane! Needless to say, it’s a good thing that the gates are close together – I would be running at this point.

On the plane, we take off – a little bumpy at first, but then it smooths out and believe it or not – I read the entire time and felt quite comfortable.

Did I tell you that my back hurts. I must have twisted wrong – it was getting better, and then yesterday it started to flare up again. Well, an hour sitting on the plane in the same position – OMG – it was interesting getting out of the seat, and then I had to walk down the stairs to get out of the plane – don’t you know that was invigorating.

After a nice visit with my brother, his wife and son – eating a late supper – Mom and I got to the hotel, and they gave us a room. She needs handicapped accommodations, and they said they wouldn’t have one until tomorrow. Well, we get settled into the room, and then the front desk calls and tells us there is a room available. So we schlep everything from one room to the other. Let’s see – me with my bad back, and Mom with her walker – it was interesting. The bell boy – I guess you could call him that – helped me move everything – took about 4 trips and we hadn’t even unpacked! I left Mom in the new room, knew that she wasn’t going to be able to help.

After all that – the bell boy came back to the new room, with our new room keys. Wasn’t that nice?

More later.

Sandi