From Point A to Point B…or the best thing I can say about air travel is that we did not crash and burn

Well it was defiantly one for the history book y’all!

I am going to try to consolidate my vacation post’s to a minimum of three possibly four…OK, OK maybe five given further thought. That’s my goal anyway.

During our summer trip last year I started the habit of keeping my journal close at hand to record my various insights. It was hit or miss for me as we drove around. I managed to keep up with most of the days while we were touring all the different parks but I missed a few days and there are some major holes in the time line!

This time around I had a bit more down time in the evenings so I was able to make a more detailed recap of each day. Sometime I even jotted things down while in route if it was particularly interesting or out of the ordinary.

Skoots1mom gave me this sweet little notebook, I have had it for some time and it just seemed to be perfect for the occasion. I either kept it in my back pocket or in the side pocket of my purse. It is nearly filled to the brim with our Hawaii Adventures!

I will start with my airport observations and my irrational fears of crashing and burning as we fly from one place to the other. No trip would be complete without some interesting airport stories, don't ya think?

I am learning to become a more well seasoned traveler, at least that is what I am trying to convince myself that I am!!!! . However I will say that I still suffer greatly for some major travel anxiety. Just prior to our trip I scoured my house several times looking for my small spiral bound index card notebook that I used during the DD surgery two years ago. Just prior to the surgery I sat down and assembled all my favorite scriptures in this small notebook so I would have it readily accusable to just flip through on the day of surgery. Well I could feel my anxiety rising as the day of our departure drew closer but the only thing was, well do you think I could remember what I did with it??? That would be a BIG NO!

After several day I did manage to locate it so I had my stash of God’s Holy word to hold onto as well as a small hand held wooden cross to keep in the pocket of my blue jeans. Yea, Yea…I’m a bit over the top but I will say that thoughts of crashing and burning were not as prominent as they have been in the past after a good dose of “Cast your anxieties on him for he cares for you!” God is good!

As we boarded the plane in Atlanta I have to share that every time I look at the massive airplane sitting at the gate I just stare at it with wonder and think how can something so huge and heavy actually have the capacity to remained airborne for more that a few second before plunging to the earth in a flaming ball of fire with me screaming at the very center. Told ya, I’m just not a good traveler!

Not to mention that just a few days before this the media was all a twitter about the death of you know who and making speculations of the possible retaliation territories attacks. So when the Middle Easter man boarded the plane wearing a black turban (confession time here!!!)  I did have a moments pause as we prepared to leave for LA.

But thankfully I was completely distracted by the celebrity sighting of none other than Hulk Hogan.

I got a good glimpse of him but failed to get a deceit picture of him as I did not want to be intrusive, not to mention he was of course up in first class and I was several rows back in coach. I mentioned to the DD when we called home that we had seen Hulk Hogan on the plane and she reminded us again of just how old we are with her response “Who’s that?” I said “Tell Skoots1mom who we saw she will know who he is!”

First flight down, now all I have to do is get through all the rest. Atlanta to LA, LA to the Big Island, Big Island to Oahu, Oahu to Maui, Maui to La and then LA back to Atlanta…I may be almost cured of my fear of plane crashes…well maybe not!

The hubs being the seasoned traveler that he is is very adept at knowing exactly what to do. Whenever possible he always tries to get the seats at the emergency exit. These seats typically have greater leg room which makes the longer flights a lot more enjoyable. Well in the pre flight preparations as the flight attendant was instructing me that I had to answer in English because she needed to know that I was capable of reading and understanding the instructions on how to deploy the emergency doors in case the need arose…well this did wonders to calm my nerves. Then she proceeds to tell me that I needed to make sure to look out the window before deploying because if I should see water or black smoke then I needed to instruct those around me to seek an alternate exit. Yea for ME!

Well we managed to get to LA with out crashing or burning and in one piece and I did not need to deploy the emergency exit slide, another plus in my book!

As I sat in the LAX terminal waiting for flight number 2 I was enjoying myself immensely with people watching.

There was a very small Asian man sitting just across from me with his shoes off sitting cross legged in his seat playing a very small guitar, then the highlight of the flight was this woman and her traveling companion. Each woman had at least two or more children in tow and they were waiting for Grandma to show up. I waited with great anticipation for Grandma to show up. Given the appearance of these two colorful woman I was eager to get a glimpse of Granny. Sadly she was a relatively normal looking type grandma woman, oh well one can only dream of more bizarre airport happenings. Miss colorful dread lock does have facial features, I just blurred them for publications.

I discretely snapped this picture with my zoom lens after we landed at Kona Airport, and yes that is her hair. Her traveling companion had the same dread locks however they were of a normal hair color.

God is good and the in-flight movie they showed from LA to Kona was the new movie with Johnny Depp.

This was a very pleasant distraction, being the HUGE Johnny Depp fan that I am I stuck my headphones in the old ears and immersed myself in the land of Depp. Thoughts of crashing and burning we completely gone from my head at least while the movie was running anyway! This was extremely helpful as well at pushing the thought of flying for great periods of time over the deep cold ocean.

But we landed at the Kona Airport on the Big Island unscathed and un-singed.

The beginning of island time is made evident my the fact that it took almost an hour for the folks to get our baggage off the airplane and onto the baggage carousal.

Look for the next vacation installment on our exploration of The Big Island!

Blessings & Mahalo

R