Saturday April 21st, 2018
FINALLY!!!!! I was awake WAY too early, considering our flight wasn’t until 8 PM. I passed the time facebook spamming (because I’m going on vacation TODAY!!!), writing an eval report for work, running errands, doing dishes, playing with some unhappy dogs that had noticed the suitcase, painting my toe nails, and watching the clock. It was a LONG day. But, on the plus side, the luggage was packed hours before go time!
Around 4, we left to take the dogs to the kennel. When reserving the week, I had specifically told them we would drop off Saturday afternoon. You see where this is going, don’t you? We showed up, and their Saturday hours are morning hours only. And there was no one answering the locked door, or the phone.
Thank goodness for good friends! After some panic and swearing, we called our friend June. Sure, she could take care of the dogs for the evening and drop them off at the kennel the next morning. PHEW!
So we raced home, said goodbye to the dogs, packed the car, and raced towards Nick’s parents house. When we arrived there 40 minutes later, we found John trying to connect a security camera that was on the fritz and Kim sputtering that she wasn’t sure John had really finished packing, since he’d spent the day spreading lime on the lawn and fixing the deck. Engineers!
Several minutes later, we started the game of tetris that is stacking luggage for a week for 4 people into the back of a Honda HR-V. After several trips into cars, the garage and the house for John’s sunglasses, we were finally on the road, for the quick 10 minute ride to my dad’s house.
We found dad waiting outside, tailgate down on his truck, ready for the great luggage transfer. That all took place in the time it took us to stash my car key, and we were on the road again, this time to Manchester airport.
Traffic was light and we were at the airport by 6:15. We were the last flight going out of Manchester, so baggage check was a breeze, and security wasn’t too bad, despite the fact that they had shut down the pre-check lane for the night, so I had to pull all the liquids and electronics out of my backpack, which then required further screening, because food is apparently a national security concern. However, in true Manchester form, that extra screening was spent comparing notes with the TSA dude on different pretzel thin flavors! MHT really has the best TSA folks.
Once we were through security, it was time to find some food. Manchester usually plans relatively well. This night they did not. There were exactly 2 food options open, and huge lines. Kim and I both ended up with ham and cheese sandwiches that we scarfed before our flight. John and Nick appeared as boarding was starting with take out from the bar, that they ate on the plane. Nick had some sort of flatbread pizza. He enjoyed it.
The flight was smooth. The anti-napper (me) napped and read. Kim and John chatted with the math major sitting with them, with John recruiting her for his company, and the king of naps watched movies on his phone, with the most creative rigging system I’ve seen in awhile. The good news is, the elastic bands he’d asked me for earlier in the day were not for flinging at people!
We landed half an hour early, about 10:30 pm, and pulled into the very last gate in the Southwest terminal. Deplaning was quick, and pretty soon, we were dividing and conquering: 3 of us to baggage claim, and John to the rental car counter...well...once Nick chased him down when John headed outside and redirected him to the escalator.
The luggage appeared quickly enough...from the farthest carousel from the escalator, and we made our way to the rental car company, where John directed us to take a seat. Seems Thrifty hadn’t planned on so many early arriving flights and so they were still cleaning out cars. They gave us 4 bottles of water for our time, and within about 7 minutes they were flagging John down with directions to the one and only car in the mid-size row.
We headed to the garage, and started the luggage tetris again, this time with a Hyundai Elantra, Nick and his dad wondering how this could be classed as a mid-size. I swear John travels more than it seems…
Tetris completed, we headed for Disney, arriving at the guard shack at Pop Century just before midnight. We had received our room ready texts around lunch time, and had received adjoining rooms in building 9 (9163 and 9164), so it was easy enough to get where we were going. John dropped us and the luggage at the curb, some Disney employee directed us to our actual room locations, and we said good night. It would be an early wake up call the next morning. We did get one of the renovated rooms. I didn’t take pictures, because I stayed in one in November. Our room looked like this.
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