This has been such an emotional day. We didn't sleep at all before we left. We arranged for a shuttle to pick us up and take us to the airport instead of keeping the truck in the airport longterm parking. They picked us up at 3:45 a.m. (Yawn), at about the time we were sleepy enough to go to bed. Continental wasn't open quite yet to check our bags. Some guy kept coming in and saying something to us as he walked past us, but neither of us could understand his middle eastern accent. Finally, another man who worked there said he's telling us to go out to Skycap and he'll get us checked in. Neither of us had ever used Skycap before, and I'd never used curbside checkin because it costs more and, quite frankly, I'm cheap....well, frugal....I don't want to pay for the same service that I can get for free. Anyhow, we followed him out there, as he requested (practically demanded) and he got us checked in. He handed my boarding pass and ID, etc., back to me, but before he handed his stuff back, he pointed to this little cup with the dollar bills sticking out of it and said, "This IS Skycap." Well, neither of us carry cash. We use our debit cards for everything. When we eat out we add the tip to the check. We rarely have incidents where we need cash... so we couldn't tip him. He said that to him, but the guy still reminded us that he's expecting a tip. We finally had to just walk away and go inside the airport, but we were scared that our luggage wouldn't make it to our destination because he was mad at us for not tipping him.
So we go inside the airport, get through security with the grouchy-ass security people who clearly hate their jobs and probably their entire lives from the permanent scowls they all wore, and then went to get some nasty breakfast. He had a meatless breakfast taco and I had a sausage wrap. We got on the plane and were greeted by Jonathan, the sashaying flight attendant. We'd been talking about the first class section and how everytime you walks past the 1st class section, the people look at the "economy people" like they're disgusted. He said he makes a point of making eye contact with them. As we were walking to our seats, I did make eye contact with a couple of them, and he was right...one particular blond who I made eye contact with looked quickly away and she actually did look disgusted. I really wanted to "accidently" whack her with my cheap-ass laptop that was in the discount department store laptop bag on the way to my sale priced seat and leave a little "silent but deadly" package for her in my wake. And I would have if my fiance and Jonathan the flight attendant weren't directly behind me.
Our seats weren't bad at all really, except that he was not thriled that the man next to him kept rubbing his leg. haha The people in the aisle across from us were wearing masks the entire trip, probably thinking they were preventing the H1N1 virus when they were really just keeping all the germs at their noses and mouths. People don't understand that those masks are for people who HAVE the flu to prevent others from getting their germs. It's worse to trap those germs inside that little mask and breathe them in and out. But what do I know...
The second flight wasn't so great. We had a layover in Houston, and I learned where the first stripper pole originated. We had to take a tram/train/shuttle type thing to our concourse, and it was like a subway car with no seats. Everybody has to stand, holding onto a pole. The doors closed, and my fiance told me to be sure I hung onto the pole. He wasn't kidding! It took off immediately at such a high speed that I nearly swung around the pole. I had to plant my feet wide apart and hold on with both hands. I can just imagine some scantilly clad girl hanging on for dear life when the first tram was invented, and by the time she swirled around the pole a couple of times, wrapped her legs around it for extra support, fall to the ground, bounce back up, groping the pole with legs and feet, and then the train stopping so suddenly that she ends up flat on her back, hands in a death grip around the pole, and her legs spread wide with feet in the air, and some dirty old man standing at his pole thinking, "damn, money could be made with this"...so he starts the first stripper joint with Houston tram car poles.
By the time we walked 2 miles to the tram thing, zipped at 0 to 400 mph and then again from 400 mph back to 0 while standing and holding onto that stripper pole, and then walked another 2 miles to our gait, we didn't have to wait long before our flight boarded. It was one of the Scooter Pooter express flights with only 19 rows, and our seats were 19 A and B...next to the bathroom. By the time we took off, I was so sleepy, and it was hot, and it was crowded, and people kept going to the bathroom throughout the whole flight. We were so punchy from lack of sleep that we laughed over everything. We played a computer game, had pretzels and pop, and then I nodded off to sleep. By the time we arrived, at 12:30ish, we'd been up 24 hours. We went to pick up our luggage, praying that the guy we didn't tip at the Austin Skycap didn't tag our luggage to go to the Himalayas instead of Charlotte, but sure enough it arrived...but both pieces of luggage had our shamrock scarves on them so we'd know which was ours at baggage claim, and they were taken off. I have no doubt that the tip-less Skycapper took them off, the asshole.
We went to the car rental desk and checked in and had to go outside to the curb to wait for a bus to pick us up to take us to the car lot to pick up the car. The shuttle driver was hilarious. But we quickly realize we were again in a situation where we were not going to have cash to tip somebody. Oh well...we got on the road, but halfway there we stopped at Burger King and rested before finishing the 2 hr, 45 minute drive here. It's absolutely beautiful here. The Autumn air is crisp and cool, the colors of the hills and mountains and spectacular and absolutely breathtaking. I'll post some pictures maybe tomorrow night when we're done for the day and relaxing.
We ate at a place called "Butts on the Creek"...a BBQ place that sits on a little hill by a beautiful creek with rushing water that had little white caps from the swiftness of the water running downstream. We're staying in a dinky cheap little place where the entire room is probably smaller than our apartment sized bedroom, but it's so quaint and sweet. There's a pretty maroon and peach comforter with matching pillow shams, pillows, and neck roll, white blinds on both windows with maroon valances on top instead of typical hotel drapes. The furniture doesn't match, and it's very worn, but it's clean and kinda cute. White chairs are on our room's porch, we have a gorgeous Autumn mountain scenery, a babbling brook across the road from us. The wind and the brook sounds are so nice and peaceful. I could seriously live here.
We took a nap after we ate and then woke up, had a very sweet and loving talk about how much we love each other, how we've waited our whole lives for each other, and we promised each other that we'd make the best husband/wife. And I know we will. I have no doubts. Tomorrow we go to get our marriage license, sightsee a little, and then check in at the Bed and Breakfast that is also our wedding venue. I'm so excited!!
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