Heading to The CC

2:30 am comes pretty darn quickly, and I never sleep well when I know I have to wake up like that.  What made it worse was that we had a horrible thunderstorm overnight and the residual rain was still lingering around. That led to the big question of whether or not Vegas would walk. Being a weimaraner, he really should love the water, but being a rescue and having spent the first two years of his life never walking, never mind a chance to go for a swim, Vegas looks at rain as if it is the devil. Luckily he decided he would walk. 

Getting out the door when we travel is another story. Vegas starts to get a little nervous when the suitcases come out. I think this May be a common thing, since Draco did the same thing. As caring canine parents, we of course do all the crazy things to try to keep him calm. We bring the suitcases upstairs when he is outside running around. We pack separately so that one of us can keep him entertained, then we switch roles. When it comes time to bring the suitcases down to the car, it is like a covert mission. You can almost hear the Mission Impossible music playing in the house. 

Well, we made it to the airport parking lot without any issues. I wish the Garden State Parkway was always that empty. It is a rare pleasure to not be sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the GSP.  

At the lot, our shuttle came right to our car and the driver stared at me as I picked up two boxes rather easily and started towards the van. I could tell he was thinking, “How the hell is she lifting that?”  I smiled, looked back at Mike who had another two boxes, and told the driver they were empty.  I can guarantee I won’t be lifting two boxes on the return! 

We got to the Check-in counter and once again, we are looked at as being crazy as we check in our four empty boxes. Sometimes, the airline personnel get it when they see where the flight is going, but not today. We left him with a very puzzled expression on his face. 

We hit the security check in at 4:25. There was already a line.  Thank goodness for priority, because we went first. I have been flying my whole life.  My dad worked for Pan Am when I was growing up, so I’m an experienced traveller.  But today was a first. I had to wait an additional 5 minutes for security to open up but once it did we were the first people to go through security. It was actually kind of nice.  We flew right through- or maybe it was just that it was 4:30am and the TSA were still half asleep. 

As we boarded and took our seats, we are told the flight will be 5 hours and 18 minutes. I’m in trouble – that is a very long time to be sitting for me. I am way too active for these cross country flights that don’t have entertainment. – A brand new plane, and no entertainment? What are they thinking? 

Luckily, I have my iPad. So, here I am at 11:00am. I have had breakfast, I’ve listened to music, I’ve watched my favorite movie “The Hangover” (never can watch that too many times), I’ve read, and now I’m dying.  I’ve gotten up three times, much to the chagrin of Mike, I’ve moved into every position possible in my seat and I am just ready to get off this plane and start our 3 hour trek to our wine. 

News to my ears, “Attention passengers, we are starting our decent into the Los Angeles area.  We will be on the ground soon.”