The Return, The Details
On Saturday morning we met up for one last meal at the Waldheim dining room. We said our goodbyes to our server, Caroline who was fantastic. She was so sweet with Cadence and Kennedy and just did an overall great job. We had already packed up the car so we also said goodbye to Paul, Meg and the kids. I got power hugs from both Cadence and Kennedy and felt twinges of sadness as we went our different ways. I certainly hope it is not another two years before I see them again. It’s weird how after only a week the lake had acquired a sense of familiarity with me. Although I was eager to get back home I also felt some melancholy upon leaving.
Dad started out doing the driving, staying behind the wheel until we crossed the NY/PA border. He had country music on the radio because nothing else came in most of the time. Neither Teresa or myself are fans of the genre and ironically neither is Dad. To make things less pleasant the station(s) were fading in and out all the time, it was somewhat akin to chinese water torture. Once I had solid cellular service I had enough and played music on my phone via my Sirius account. It was definitely a change for the better.
It was another long day of driving, adding up to close to 7 hours with the stops. I was very glad to pull back in the driveway of their house. As we got closer to their place my brother Todd called and asked if we wanted to go to dinner. We agreed and the place chosen was called Snuzzies. We all unloaded our gear and the laundry marathon started for my Dad and Teresa. I just continued to work out of my suitcase, I had a trash bag for dirty clothes which I had to pull from due to a shortage of some clean items. I didn’t expect to be wearing shorts quite as much as I wound up doing while up there.
The dinner at Snuzzies was interesting. This place is right in the middle of a rural residential area and looks like it has been around for quite awhile based on the looks of it. It has old 70’s style wood dominating both the exterior and interior. They only take cash, and serve bar food. In total we had something like 8 people so we wound up splitting it across two tables. My table was myself, Todd, Mindy, and my niece Caroline who took a break from her work shift to attend which was nice. The portions were huge, I wound up eating my tuna sandwich with a fork and just left the bread out of it. They also got a pizza which I had a couple of slices of, it was quite good.
I got to catch up on the latest and greatest in Todd and Mindy’s world. There were things that happened like Todd buying a boat last year and a Mercedes convertible that I had no idea about until recently. Their lives seem very hectic and busy but that is something I think I have said after every catch up session I have with them. Mindy’s mom’s friend at the other table was super talkative, we had to eventually leave a strong hint that we were ready to head out. It was good seeing everyone. Like Meg’s family, it had been a couple years since I saw Todd in person, at his 50th birthday party.
I didn’t sleep all that well Sunday night which wasn’t the best scenario when faced with another long day of travel. I didn’t have to be at the airport until around 2PM so that gave me some time at my dad and stepmom’s place. I did some work on dad’s Mac computer. He had some malware a few months ago and I wanted to make sure things were properly cleaned up. I used a utility I found online to assist in the process. I updated, deleted, and optimized whatever I could. It took a couple hours to complete but his system checked out clean afterward and ran at least marginally faster than it was before.
Dad also asked if I could help him look at his zero turn mower. The one side of the mower deck was hanging down low and obviously something was broken. I found a small plastic bracket had snapped. I used dad’s tools to remove it and within a couple minutes on the phone I had identified the part name and number. Instead of ordering on the internet like I would do Dad instead wanted to take the information to a local mower repair guy he has used to get the part. For some reason he thought the guy might be at his shop on a Sunday morning so we took a drive over there.
Not surprisingly, to me at least, the shop was closed so dad had to resign to driving back there during the week to try again. On the way back to the house we wound up taking a narrated tour of the greater Lenhartsville area. Dad was turning onto random roads and giving commentary on various things/places we saw. He does have an impressive amount of knowledge about the place but by the time the tour was over I was ok with it.
So dad had one more tractor related task he asked for help with. He need to get the bush hog mounted to his big tractor. A bush hog is a big mower that runs off the tractor PTO drive. Getting it aligned/hooked up yourself is a major pain in the ass so I was happy to help. Dad said he had not used the bush hog in at least couple years so he wanted to make sure it still worked. He did a couple loops around the lower pasture, knocking down the high grass/weeds effectively.
So while I was eating breakfast I was reviewing my electronic boarding passes for the flight. I already was a bit mad at myself for not taking more notice/consideration of the arrival time back in Fort Myers when I booked this, around 10PM since I was working Monday. When I reviewed the first boarding pass for the trip back it was for the flight from Allentown to Philadelphia. I noticed the duration of the flight, seemed strangely long for such a short distance, an hour and a half.
As I looked again I saw the gate it was departing from, it said, CURB. My initial thought was this meant we were taking one of those real small planes that boards right from the runway. As I continued examining down further it identified the aircraft type as BUS. Oh fck. I was frustrated at my failure to flag this during the booking process. I totally had to be asleep at the wheel to not take note of the late arrival and ground transport to Philly. I mentioned this to Ali and she posted an earlier direct flight from Allegiant I could take but I did not see it until too late, not that I would have wanted to spend an extra $300 plus to correct my mistake. A bus it will be then.
Dad drove me to the airport, running his tank down to the low fuel warning. He seems to like seeing how low he can go sometimes. I hugged and thanked him for the experience. It had been something like a quarter century since my last trip there. I definitely had a greater appreciation of the experience this time around.
The bus was big and modern, offering comfort surpassing a typical plane seat. It also got to Philadelphia around 20 minutes ahead of time. I read a good portion of the way. Ironically the bus segment of the trip was the one that exceeded expectations.
As we approached the Philly airport I got my first notice of a delay, pushing, the departure time back from 6:55 to 7:40, unwelcome news. My first concern was the plan I had hashed out with Ali to meet me at the airport with the Tesla. With the delay my arrival was getting stupid late, as she had to work Monday as well. We agreed instead that they could just drop off my car at the airport parking lot, lock it, and then I can use my phone to unlock the car like I normally do. It was good thing we came up with this contingency plan because there were more delays to come.
While I was waiting I got food using a self service system I had never seen before. Almost ALL of the food vendors are utilizing it. You punch your order into and Ipad looking device and then they bring it right to you. It’s convenient and an interesting use of tech.
So after eating I was just sitting around people watching. I was right by the AA customer service desk so I got to hear a lot of unhappy customers complaining about various things. My flight got bumped back another 20 minutes, setting the departure to 8PM. After we finally boarded there was one final delay of roughly a half hour on the runway waiting for our turn in line. Repeatedly I wished I would have made different choices with these flight arrangements but I had no one to blame but myself.
Once we got in the air I almost immediately closed my eyes. I couldn’t flat out fall asleep but I was really tired from the bad sleep and travel the day before. I utilized various positions during my rest. The one time I did doze off briefly and caught myself as my head slipped off my hand which instinctively made me jerk my other hand into the air. I am sure it looked funny. Finally our flight touched down about 11:15. Our luggage was slightly delayed as well for good measure. It felt good to get back in the Tesla and drive back home. I did not walk in the door until something like 12:30 AM. Elsa was very happy to see me and would not leave my side the rest of the night.
So despite the very late arrival I felt I needed to do a couple things before going to sleep. I threw all of my clothing from the trip into the wash and started it. While it was running I processed the five orders that came in for the 3D store while I was gone. To some it may seem moronic to do this at 1:30 in the morning but it is a testament to how my mind works. I have strong sense of responsibility I carry for most things I agree to take on. If I put off processing the orders until tonight that would mean another day of waiting for these people who had already been waiting. I wanted to stay awake until the quick wash cycle on the clothes finished so I could at least throw them in the dryer before going to bed so it worked out ok. Thankfully Ali already washed my bedding and ran the dishwasher.
I set my alarm an hour later than normal and let my department know I would be a little late. I closed my eyes a little after 2AM, what a day. I woke up this morning absent of the burning sensation in my right lower back that I had every morning at the Waldheim which I assume was from the bed. Of course I could have used more sleep but it was a good start. I have a long, long list of things to do over the next few days at home but I will knock it all out in short order because that’s what I do. Shugs and Ali did a good job of keeping the house in order while I was gone so that helps a lot.