Strout Goes South Day 1

Part one of a recap of my adventures visiting Kiera last week.

On a nice sunny Saturday morning, I woke up a bit earlier than my 8:00 am alarm. Wide awake at 6:00 am, I wonder what I am to do for the next two hours...there's the possibility of tidying up my apartment a bit before I go....or I could lay in bed and be lazy. Be lazy it was. But then I sneezed. Hard. Seven times. And suddenly I had something to do for two hours: stop my horrendous nosebleed.

I finally got that sucker clotted (only a little nervous I'd have to go to the emergency room) and gathered items for both my flight to Maryland and my trip home to Maine. My drive to the Manchester airport was fairly uneventful, and there was very nice weather. After riding the parking shuttle to the airport, I checked in at the Southwest counter. When I mentioned my destination of Baltimore, the woman replied "12:25 flight?" To which I said, "No, 1:40." Yeah, that's how early I was. At this point, the woman says, "You're all set. Gate 14."

So I figure out where I need to go and get through security with no problems (Ha ha, suckers!!) And then find Gate 14. The 12:25 flight was getting ready to board. I decided to get something to snack on, and then called my mom. We talked for a while about the Livestock Expo, then I decided I should go to the bathroom while I still had the opportunity to do so without resting my arm in a sink at the same time. As I left the bathroom, I hear "Final call for Southwest flight 774....passenger Smith, Strout...." What the hell??? At this point, I realize I was supposed to be at gate 15. There goes the advantage of checking in early for an "A" section when I am one of the last five people on the plane. Oh well. I still managed to score an aisle seat.

A quick little flight later (and a landing that made me question the pilot's sobriety...) I was in sunny Baltimore. My one checked piece of baggage was one of the first ones off the plane and I was out the door to meet Kiera, who was dutifully traveling the eighth circle of Hell, also known as airport pickup.

To be perfectly honest, I do not remember much of the rest of the day except meeting Trapper - a cool and quirky kitty cat - and checking out Chipotle and the cute little town center near Kiera's apartment. My fajita burrito was awesome but next time, instead of listening to Kiera, I will skip the corn salsa because I didn't think it was "not spicy at all." But maybe that's just me being a wuss.

Well, that's about it for Day 1. Day 2 is a doozy so stay tuned......