Day 6 - 318 -- Tears and Cardio

The day began with a chilly walk uphill to campus while pulling my suitcase and carry on. I was headed for the 0715h bus to the airport. This walk brought with it a cardio workout. We left Halifax about an hour late, so arrived in Montreal with about 25 minutes to catch the connecting flight. I was ready to run, but feared the worst given that I needed to clear customs and security again. A cart was waiting for five of us with flights that had already begun to board. The cart went faster than I've ever seen. My hair was blowing in the breeze!  She had to let us off at the US boarder crossing area, but had saved us all 12 to 15 minutes making that long trek through the airport. We ran to the end of the hall. Boarding passes scanned. We ran down a long hall making a hard left into the security area where we emptied our luggage and semi-disrobed. We were ready to run in our stocking feet but were encouraged by security to put shoes back on. Off we went down the next hall into a - thankfully -  empty customs hall. I was the only one there as the 4 for Pittsburgh were ahead of me. Out of there, through the doors right into the perfume section of duty free. Luckily got out of there without getting lost or fainting from constricted airways from the scent. Out into the hallway with gates it became clear that my gates were at the bitter end and the moving sidewalks went to the opposite wing. Another long hallway with a sharp right turn ran into an even longer one. By this time I felt shin splints, but kept on going. At the end of the hall was an escalator down to my gate and the one for Pittsburgh. As I ran down the moving staircase the gate agent shouted, Are you Raleigh? Know I just answered yes, but was thinking I should have a long cape and a tricorn hat. I ran onto the plane with the door closing behind me while the flight attendant announced that boarding was complete. That felt odd as I was the only one in the aisle walking to the back of the plane. I checked my watch when I got seated and it just over 25 minutes since I left the other plane. Kudos to the airline crew for getting all to the planes on time.

Now, there were cathartic tears for making that wild run through the airport. Then I realized it was unlikely that the suitcase made the transfer. We then sat in line for de-icing. This process covered my window with thick lime green semi-liquid. No one could accuse me of looking through rose coloured glasses <grin>. Now this is where there were a couple of patches of blue sky with visible sun. Still not sure if that was to mock me or give me hope that all would work out.

Sadly, when I arrived in Raleigh-Durham, my bag was a no-show. My friend and I checked with the airline desk and were met with major ineptitude. A call to customer service got me further in 5 minutes than the 20+ minutes spent at the desk with workers carrying on two private conversations intermingled with occasional snippets with me and another customer. A letter will be written recommending that the situation with the contractor be reviewed. The  bag was located still in  Montreal and would be sent on the only flight daily tomorrow and delivered to the hotel. This meant that I had only my jeans and Hard Rock shirt to wear to the memorial service tomorrow. It took me a while to come to terms with that.

So, the day was brought to me by the colour lime green popsicle. The RFID holder for the passport is this colour. Today I learned that these cannot be carried through the security scanner. The de-icing solution changed my world view to something very bright green instead of ominous grey. Lastly, when asked the colour of my bag - GREEN - was recorded. I hoped they did not look for something that bright when mine is a darker tone.

The song for today involves my travel destination.  I love this soothing voice. Enjoy!

Carolina in my Mind -- James Taylor