Note to Self: Get Driver's License Renewed

The much anticipated trip is upon the kiddo and I now. 

But, can I tell you about our day???

Up and at it at 3:30 this morning, but that's okay, that's okay, I can handle it, 'cause I'm looking forward to our trip.

Drove to the local airport and got checked in with no problems.  Next thing you know, we're at the Charlotte airport.  We boogie ' cause that's a huge airport and even though we're not changing airlines, we've got a long way to go, baby.  But we make it in time for me to scope out the other passengers and see which ones look threatening.  The only one that does, though, happens to be boarding the flight next to ours, so I'm good, I'm good.

Leave Charlotte, arrive St. Louis.  No problem.  This time, however, we have to leave U.S. Air and will board another airline.  We'll get to that in a minute.   Anyway, by leaving U.S. Air and going to another airline, we must leave the "Secured Area" and re-enter another "Secured Area".  Between these two "Secured Area" points is the check-in for our 2nd airline, which is Cape Air.  Never heard of it?  Not to worry, neither had I.  No problem, though.  We find the check-in lady, give her our names and wait and wait for her computer to pull our names up.  She finally finds us and prints up our boarding pass, which looked NOTHING like my previous boarding passes.  However, it has all the right information on it.

That's when the fun began.

The next item of business was as follows:

Check in Lady to the Kiddo: "Could you set your take-on baggage on the scales please, I need to weigh them."

Kiddo does as told.

And then, if I'm lying, I'm dying, she asks the kiddo how much SHE weighs.

Yes, you understood correctly.

However, I didn't know she had asked her that until it was my turn.

Check-in-Lady weighs my first take-on: 8 pounds;
2nd take-on: 2 pounds

Then she asks me (very discreetly, to her credit), how much I weigh.

"Do WHAT?"

Repeat.

I lie.

At that point, my eyes began to twitch, because it's dawning on me why total weight is all of a sudden extremely important.

However, I try to ignore that nagging suspicion, and move on to the new "Secured Area".

At this point, I hand the "Secured Area Checker" my new flimsy boarding pass and my driver's license.

Let me stop and point out to anyone outside of the state of NC who may possibly be reading this, that the state of NC implemented a new policy some years back that you don't have to renew your driver's license for, I don't know, 8 to 10 years or some such oddity.  Mine is up for renewal this year, but not yet, so I haven't renewed it and my picture is a touch faded you might say.  This was not a problem at 4:00 this morning in the hometown.  It became a problem at 9:30 Central Time this morning in St. Louis.

I was escorted to the side.  I was frisked with my arms out.  I was frisked with my arms to my side.  My book was frisked.  My camera was frisked.  My flip flops were frisked.

The good news is, they decided I wasn't a threat and finally let me pass - after all the frisking.

The kiddo and I then went and got some French Toast whilst we waited on our new flight with Cape Air since we had been up since 3:30 and had not eaten.

In hindsight, maybe eating wasn't the smartest thing we had ever done.

Our flight was to leave (LEAVE, mind you - not board) at 10:35.

We wanted to be sure we had plenty of time so we hurried and finished our French Toast (in hindsight, not a good idea), by 10:00, and walked toward Terminal D for Cape Air.  We didn't want to be late.

It didn't take long to realize that we were the only ones going in that direction.

We reach the end of the hall and go downstairs. 

Whew, we were not the only passengers. There were a whole THREE others (however, we found out later that one of them was getting on the other plane).

Meanwhile, we got a glimpse of the plane and the longer we sat there, the more hysterically funny it became to me (the kiddo refuses to let me sit next to her on the way home).

Remember when I said our flight was to leave at 10:35?  At 10:33 we were still sitting there waiting to board.

Know what time we left?  10:35.

We walked out to the plane.  My 8 pound camera bag had to be placed in the WING.  The WING people.

Know how many passenger seats there were on the plane?  SIX.  (There were 2 more in the back but we were forbidden to sit there.  I didn't want to know why)

We get on.  We lock up.  We buckle up.  The pilot cranks up the plane.  It sounds like a Monster Truck.  He opens his window.  Yep. Opened his window.  I don't know why that window-opening gave me the hysterical laughs again, but it did.

(Google picture)

We take off.  I close my eyes because it's like when I ride with my husband.  I have to close my eyes.  If death is imminent, I don't want to see it coming.  I'd rather it just hit me.

I did open my eyes one time.  What I saw was the pilot reading what I can only assume was the How to Fly This Plane Manual.

I hurried up and closed my eyes back.

The only time the kiddo opened her eyes, the pilot was looking around at her giving her the Thumbs Up sign.

The fact that I'm sitting here typing this out means that we made it.

I have to say, though that two thoughts kept running through my mind.

The first one was Scarlett saying to Rhett, "There is a hell, Rhett, I know there is.  I was raised on it."

But the real description of this experience was summed up by Calvin to Hobbes:

"Don't sell the Bike Shop, Orville."