A good night’s sleep always shows on your face. For example, when I walked into the aggressively lit bathroom this morning, I saw a scabby-eyed face staring at me in the mirror. Some dried drool covered the corner of my mouth up to my chin.
Humans are not meant to wake up at 3:00 a.m.
Obviously my mother agrees with this sentiment, because her alarm went off and on until I entered her room. She hadn’t moved, so I knew she was at risk of falling asleep.
We’ve all had a busy few weeks.
I walked heavily for a few minutes and forgot to weigh myself, for comparison purposes at the end of the walk (damn) – and returned to the bathroom to find Mom brushing her teeth. I thought she knew I was standing there as I watched her zombie-like movements early in the morning. When he looked up, he shouted, «Baah!» And he uttered a bad word.
“I thought you saw me!” I laughed.
«I didn’t see you until I saw you in the mirror, you weirdo,» he said.
Scaring her like that never gets old.
To the airport!
Southwest is known for its hospitality and if I remember correctly, this was the first Southwest flight I was on. Security does not allow the use of trekking poles, paddles, and sometimes knives, if you have an annoying security guard. I don’t normally check bags because many accounts have been rerouted, delayed, or stuck behind a stuck loading door.
I approached the baggage check-in line and saw a group of Southwest flight attendants walking by. One of the attendees was complaining to his co-worker.
«I’m not responsible for corporate planning. What do you want me to do to book your flight? We’re early!»
All four attendees had Starbucks drinks. I vaguely wondered what kind of discount they were getting from the airport vendors as I stood behind a line of other glassy-eyed passengers.
In fact, my dad booked my flight hoping he could get points for the purchase since I never fly Southwest.
You didn’t get any points for buying my ticket.
I was so busy this week that I completely forgot to check in for my flight. It was nice that checking a bag also involved checking in myself.
The line to go through security lasted about two minutes, something practically non-existent in terminal 2 of RDU airport.
I was crammed between two people in the back of the plane during my first flight. There were quite a few empty seats in the back, even a few empty rows. Too tired to ask to be changed, I fell asleep as the plane took off.
The AUS airport in Austin was… different. And great. The security systems that the bags go through looked like MRI machines and there was even a robot coffee maker. With all this new technology coming out and talk of it overtaking our workforce, I definitely didn’t expect my job to be threatened. That said, I doubt barista robots are what most people want for their local coffee shop environment.
My flight to San Diego was another cold flight where I put my skin on my lap like a blanket. To balance the magnitude of being squashed on my last flight, I was in an aisle seat in row six with extra legroom.
Score.
They even gave us honey roasted pistachios! They tasted like salty peanuts to me, but I was hungry and couldn’t complain.
Apparently it was Southwest’s anniversary or something (I really don’t know), but Dad arrived on a plane decorated with American paint and the lady asked over the intercom if anyone wanted to volunteer to sing the national anthem.
A nervous lady rose to the occasion without a special voice, but we all sang and it was great.
Dad finally got off the carrier and we had something to eat and then found our way to the ferry that would take us to the PCT ferry we booked to Cleef, our first stay where we would begin the tour.
Marmalade was our driver, a tall, retired guy wearing a white hoodie with the PCT map on the front. He took us to REI, where we got our gas cans, then to a small store where we waited an hour for some sandwiches we ordered. We had tried calling a dozen times on the way from the airport to place the order, but the phone wasn’t working. Oh ok.
They dropped us off at the terminal to begin the trail. It was only a half mile hike to camp, so we walked back and set up our tents.
Later that night there was a long talk about all things PCT which were valuable lessons learned. It had been a long day and I had been awake since midnight Pacific Time, so I was exhausted.
It wasn’t until 9:15 that I went to bed and closed my eyes. Earplugs, my paste over my eyes and I passed out in no time.
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