Wow, what a long day it’s been. And here it is Tuesday and it’s yet to reach midnight in Tucson. My day has been adventurous for sure. I tried to sleep at 9pm so I could get a nap in, and I slept for about 2 hours and then the cat woke me up. I think he was slightly confused as to why we were going to bed so early, but he went along with it. He woke me up around 11pm and tried so hard to get back to sleep but wound up tossing and turning until my alarm went off at 1:30 am.
The shuttle came and picked me up at 3:15, right on time and I had the van all to myself. I checked in my 43 pound suitcase and was the first one on line at the security area. Of course they don’t open until 4 am and so I had to wait about 15-20 minutes, which I was fine with. It’s as if the Tucson Airport is on a vacation timer and suddenly turns on at 4. I got through security in less than 5 minutes and had some breakfast and called dad.
The first flight was to Houston and was about 2 hours long in one mom’s favorite planes. A 65-70 seater regional jet. Ugh. My overstuffed backpack wouldn’t even fit under the seat, and I doubt it would fit in the miniature overheads so I had to deal with lack of legroom. The seats on those planes are also very narrow. I sat next to some Air Force kid (who was a real punk actually) who had a semi-black eye and when he slept his hands and arms would twitch…he hit me a few times. lol. He insisted I go to the red light district in Amsertdam. That’d be an awesome place to bring Henry! Start him off young! Hahaha.
The rinky dink plane landed in Houston at 9:30 local time and my flight to Newark was scheduled to start boarding at 10:10. I was freaking out. It was like Denver last Christmas all over again. We arrived in terminal B and I had to go E. Thankfully Houston has those awesome monorails (I felt like I was back in Epcot, BFF!). I got to Terminal E by 9:50 and then had to locate gate 18. Of course it was at the end of the dang wing. I had enough time to run to the bathroom and grab a Danish (of which the girl called it a Dan-ish instead of Dane-ish). Silly Texans!
I got to my seat and was just exhausted. This plane was about the same size plane that mom and I took to Hawaii and the flight was really nice. There were screens in the seat in front of us to listen to music or watch TV or track the flight. The TV selection was rather poor so I opted to listen to the classical stations they had piping into the plane when we boarded. They had an opera station and an instrumental one. I managed to doze off to Verdi and all that fun soprano stuff….actually not very different from my Romanticism class last semester. Haha. I slept through most of the 3 hour flight, which was great. While we were landing I started to talk to the lady sitting next to me and told her about what I’m doing with school and explained although I am from Long Island, I’m going to Germany by way of Tucson. She tells me she’s a choir director, but a volunteer one at her church and does handbells. Small world. She was en route to Copenhagen on a basically parallel flight to mine where she was arriving at 8 am and I will be arriving at 7:30. She was going on a vacation of Scandinavia. I’m so jealous. I’d love to see some of my family’s “roots.” She also asked where my Long Island accent was. She literally said, “surely you weren’t born and raised there.” Hahaha. See, I’m so not like those people on How the States Got Their Shapes.
When we arrived in Newark I was in shock at how beautiful the terminal was! I knew they had redone it and renamed it not too long ago, but I really was expecting it to resemble Penn Station. Haha. The bathrooms did to an extent. I had a two hour lay over and managed to talk to mom and grab a B&W cookie and some Red Mango. What a tease it was to be able to see the outline of NYC and not get to go there for another 5 months. But I had my share of typical NY/NJ attitudes from the employees there (not to me, but to other people). It was raining pretty steadily when we were leaving. I find it strange that the plane we took to Newark was bigger than the plane I am currently on. Yes, if you’re wondering what that means I am writing this out while flying over the Atlantic at 35,040 above sea level traveling at 600+ mph. I think we are at the half way point with 1850 miles to go (about 3.5 hrs left).
Dorothy, I’m sorry to report that your plug was not used on this flight. Our seats have standard plugs so I just used my regular charger. I even was able to charge my phone, which I thought was awesome. This plane also has the screens in the seats in front of you, but with a MUCH better entertainment selection. I will admit at first though that I sat in the wrong row at first. I apparently can’t tell the difference between 24 and 25. lol. Anyway, the screen is a touch screen and you have the option to watch about 40 movies from Avatar to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, to sitcoms (there was one ep of Hawaii Five-0 which I watched before dinner…one of my favorite ones to boot). You can play games like Bejeweled on the TVs too. Their music selection isn’t so great, so that’s what I’m using my laptop for! J
While I ate dinner I watched the Obama Myth Busters Special. Dinner was okay. We had the option of beef ravioli or chicken. I had the chicken. It was grilled with some tomato sauce, peas, string beans and rice. We also got a side salad with Ranch dressing, a dinner roll, and two Milano cookies for desert. It’s been a smooth flight so far, not too much turbulence. Which is great!
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