I awoke around 4am from a fitful, sweaty sleep, and immediately made sure my watch and phone were as charged as possible, along with the vape I had been using. My body craved actual restful sleep, but the best I could offer it was Monster and half a donut left over from the beignet place. I did not risk making a big cup of the strong coffee my parents keep in the house, as I really had no desire to spend half an hour on the toilet in the airport, trying to race the clock.
At around 5:20, well before dawn, we loaded everything into the car and said our final farewells to my parents and the dogs. From there, it was a 43-mile drive from the island to the bagel place, which opened at 6:30 and was all the way on the other side of Wilmington from the airport. I got a BLT bagel sandwich (vegan bacon, of course) and a spinach-and-pepperjack bagel slathered in a thick layer of cream cheese to eat later. Daisy got...something, I dunno, I was very tired; but, it was good, because I tried it, and she also grabbed a few bagels in a paper bag to bring home to the parents.
We dropped off the rental car and made it through security and to our gate without incident, made the flight to Charlotte without incident, and once we were in Charlotte...left the plane, got out into the airport, turned around, and....went right back to the exact same gate. And the exact same plane.
I don't think I've ever experienced this while flying before -- getting on a plane to one airport, getting back off, and then getting right back on it again (different seats, though) to my final destination. It was wild and surreal, especially as Charlotte is a big airport. The odds of us flying into and then flying back out of the same gate has to be incredibly small, but flying out again on the same plane, with the same crew, just different seats? That has to be positively miniscule for an airport as large as Charlotte.
Incidentally, I'd totally name a child Charlotte. The name has been on my list for years.
Anyway, after a quick bathroom stop, we were back on the plane and wheels up to Omaha. Neither set of flights this time around was bad in any sense of the word; American Airlines used to be awful to fly on back in the day, but nowadays they're fine and the last few flights I've been on with them have been, dare I say, stress-free. They have treated us right, and I actually find myself saying that I do not mind them at all now. Plus, we're now both AAdvantage members and we're racking up miles; I believe I'm at like 1600 or something already. We'll double that on our fights to Canada and back this fall.
What do the miles mean, really? Who knows. I haven't looked at their programs or how you redeem them aside from a quick glance at the app. It would be nice to be able to eventually fly to my parents' and back for free one of these days, or book a free trip to Canada, or Chicago and back, etc. We have a ton of Delta SkyMiles too, which I've also never really looked into. I'd be stunned if, by this point, we don't have significant discounts or free trips waiting for us with Delta, since we used to fly them everywhere for everything, for years on end.
Shortly after 1pm we were on the ground again in Omaha, and an hour later the parents had picked us up and we were safely home with the kitties.
It was...a long trip.
I don't mean that in the sense that it was bad or stressful, because honestly it was absolutely neither of those things -- this is the most relaxing trip I've ever had to visit my parents, honestly, and the travel was fine -- but I think five or six days is about my comfortable limit for travel. Anything past that for me is very tiring and I feel like I'm counting down the minutes until I can be back home in my own environment and in my own house with the cats. Maybe that's just a me thing; I know most people are sad to see their vacations end, and on some level I am too, but a much larger part of me is very glad to be peacefully at home again.
Daisy returned to work on Friday; I myself do not return to work until Sunday night -- I work a quick four days and then I'm off for another four-day weekend, as this coming weekend is Labor Day weekend. It seems like the summer has absolutely disappeared, evaporated before our eyes. I am working the overnight of Labor Day but not the Sunday leading into it.
In the time since returning home, as I frequently say after these trips, life has slowly returned to normal. I spent most of the weekend doing laundry from the trip and beginning slow preparations for the trip to Canada in less than seven weeks. I still need to mow the grass, and I still need to get some real quality sleep and turn my sleep schedule back around to working overnights again, but we did do some grocery shopping and had a weekend meal with Daisy's parents (after which I promptly fell asleep in the living room chair).
As if our unspoken prayers had been answered, after we returned home Omaha experienced a great drop in temperature -- highs this coming week are supposed to be in the low to mid 70s, and right now (as I write this) it's 59 outside, in late August, which has been remarkable. I plan to mow the grass on Monday, when the high is supposed to be 73.
The cats, of course, are very excited to have us home. Little Gary has been my shadow at almost all times, Pete has been very glad to have me back in the bed to sleep with, and Mable has tried to be as close with me as possible. Even the introverts, Hank and Emmy, are glad I'm home:
Charlie, however, is very much a mama's boy and has been spending a lot of time with Daisy. He'll come to me to show me he loves me too, but he is absolutely a mama's boy. I love them all so much and I am so very glad they were safe and sound while we were away, being watched by our wonderful Catsitter.
I may have mentioned before -- said Catsitter is not available when we're in Canada; she has another job that week and only takes one pet-sitting job at a time. We have considered offering her more money just to stop by for quick check-ins and to give Pete his pills, just to see if she'll reconsider. If she can't or won't, we'll have to start the search process all over again from scratch, and if we can't find anyone...it'll be the parents. It's sad and a bit frustrating, but I get it. It's hard on the parents, too. I don't want to ask them to do it if we can avoid it, because I know it's time-consuming and difficult for them and it's really hard for Mama to give Pete his pills. The cats know the parents, but they really seem to love the Catsitter. So, it is what it is. We'll see.
I have also started Christmas shopping for the season already. Yes, in August. I ordered a couple of things for my dad that I'll ship to them later in the year, closer to the holidays. I have not yet really looked through the photos I took while in North Carolina, but Daisy took far better ones while we were there as most of mine are selfies and/or short videos of the ocean -- so no, I have no idea as of yet what our "Christmas card photo" will be. We may not use any of the ones from NC; we may get far better ones in Canada. That likely means I'll hold off a bit on designing the cards this year so I can see all of the photos together, unless there's a particularly stunning one Daisy took during the NC trip that I haven't seen yet.
I also have not looked at my credit card balances from the trip -- I sort of don't want to, to be honest. I spent a lot of money on the trip; I put the trip itself on one of my cards long before we left and every single expense during the trip -- save for Daisy checking her luggage for the planes -- I took care of myself. Every restaurant, every shopping trip, every drop of gas in the car, every piece of new clothing, every bagel, sandwich, or bottle of water was all on me. To be fair, Daisy did cover the rental car. We usually split the expenses a little more evenly, but as this was a trip mainly for me to see my parents, I figured it was only right to cover the vast majority of everything it entailed. And truthfully, I didn't really think about it.
"Can the Canada trip just be our Christmas presents to each other this year?" Daisy asked me a few days ago. "I don't really want or need anything else."
"I don't either," I replied.
"I don't either," I replied.
And it's true, I don't. I'm sure we'll still get each other some little things here and there, but I expect a very light Christmas this year. There's very, very little I actually want that wouldn't just end up taking up space once the novelty wears off. I have like ten games for my Switch (and probably four or five more for Daisy's) that I/we have never played yet. I haven't even picked up my Switch since the holiday season last year. I have enough clothing, we have enough food, I don't want or need anything special. Give me a book and a few CDs and I'll be happy, or some good socks and underwear. I am not a picky guy.
My aunt and uncle made it back home to WV fine, and we found out the next day that the extreme back pain my 78-year-old uncle was dealing with ended up being a god-awful shingles outbreak. This definitely explains a lot, and we completely understood their return home at that point. I don't know whether they were able to get a refund on the remaining time on their AirBNB, however. They loved meeting Daisy and deeply regretted not getting to see/know her more and spend time with us. Daisy also relayed to me that my aunt had told her, in their brief interactions, that I was her favorite nephew.
Because of course I am. I'm pretty awesome.
The night before we left NC, we briefly got to speak to my oldest aunt via phone -- the one who was supposed to come down, but did not -- so we even got some interaction with her. She spoke to Daisy for probably twice the amount of time she talked to me (again, showing how much everyone in the family loves my wife).
I am happy to be home, but I am definitely feelin' it, and it's going to take several days of recovery before I can really call myself normal again. It is what it is; I'm not mad at it, it just takes me longer and longer to recover from travel every time. I now know how Daisy's mother feels after a long trip (generally, she gets sick for a week or two).
More to come, of course, as normal life resumes...
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