IA/PA Trip Inst. 2

The plan was to attend Arlyn K's 30th bd party in IA on the way to PA. I had no claim to the AK "inner circle," but my brother and the Turner girls did and so I happily went along. My brother had always said any chance to go to the Kauffman's was to be relished -- their hospitality was legendary and their extended family was crazy in a positive way.
E and L Turner were also going to Winter Term, and my brother had plans to fly back to OR after the IA festivities.
The Turner parents drove us to the airport, we caught a flight to Atlanta, GA without a hitch.
In Atlanta, GA my brain was problematic -- I was ill and had a false sense of security since our lay over was long. So, after eating dinner I wandered off in search of some objects to purchase, and ended up talking to an Ethiopian Orthodox man about religion -- Mary and icons and that sort of thing. I began to wonder what time my plane was to fly (my brain was in serious trouble!), and eventually became alarmed enough to tell the guy I needed to go check the kiosk for my flight information. I checked... and, behold, it stated the plane was to depart in 10 minutes and the gate was closed! I waved goodbye to the orthodox fellow, and went racing off down the concourse toward my gate.
As I arrived at the gate, L and E were stressfully standing with the luggage and my brother poked his head out the door and said to come on. Apparently he had been told by the airline people to go and look for me, and if I was there to come and if not they would leave without us. "Strangely," I arrived at the exact time he showed his face.
We rushed onto the plane, myself inwardly cringing as the cause of the disturbance before all these faces. Thankfully the faces were unknown to me, but I generally prefer to appear in control and to be rather inconspicuous. Life goes on...

We arrived in Missouri, got our rental car... and proceeded north on a highway. I was in charge of the directions, so it was my fault. We went north for a while, until my brother wondered at the correctness of the direction and we turned around and lost about an hour in travel time. If we had known the Missouri roads better we probably could have cut across the plains to the correct highway -- but we had no good map of the area. This event was also rather embarrassing and, I desperately hoped, out of character for me. But maybe it's not out of character...

We arrived at AK's aunt L's house at the cold and dark hour of 3 am. Let ourselves in and enjoyed the homey atmosphere.

And the real adventures had not even begun.

IA/PA Trip Inst. 1

The last two months have been a variation on the theme of my normal existence. What is normal, anyway?

The end of October I gave my 60 days notice to Parkway Animal Hospital, announcing my last day as December 31, 2008. The reason: plans to attend Faith Builders E. P. winter term 2009. At the same time, I offered that if PAH did not find anyone to replace me by the time I was done at Faith Builders, I would probably be available to return and fill in. This seemed amenable to Dr H, who had plans to be in Honduras around the end of February -- if I was gone and they had no one to replace me, it would leave Dr R and whatever costly relief vet they could find.
As December 31 approached, the probability of my being needed come February appeared increasingly high. I therefore retained my apartment.

December 31 finally arrived, and after a half day of work (since it was New Year's Eve) I finished packing and preparing for an absence of almost 6 weeks. There's always this feeling that I'll forget something necessary, but all a person really needs is the clothes on their back, their ID, and some form of currency. As it turned out, I forgot nothing which I strongly regretted not having and perhaps that is why it took a while to cram all my stuff into the computer case, Burton rolling duffel, and backpack. I always try to dispel the idea that girls have to take so much more than guys when they travel. This time I felt a bit guilty, but being gone for 6 weeks requires more. And guys have the benefit of wearing the same set of pants, only changing their shirt color, and not being a bore to the observer.

I stopped at the Winston Menno New Year's Eve Party "on my way" up to my brother's duplex. I had forgotten a Christmas present for one of the church members (the church is so small that everyone pretty much gives everyone a card/present/something on Christmas), so I took it down to them and delivered a couple articles that still remained in my house from the 1.5 week stay of one of the church girls.
(Why all these details? Maybe because I'm ill and somewhat out of it. It's a good excuse, anyway.)
I arrived at my bro's place after he was abed, let myself in and crashed on the couch.

I "texted" a Happy New Year to my Uncle M that night, and it so happens that he called like 45 min after I crashed (on the couch), and I had a grand time talking for about an hour. Which all goes to say that I didn't get huge amounts of sleep, and besides I was becoming ill, and this plays a role in the events of the next day's travel.