The Comforting Chaos Of Departure

There is one constant for ALL of our expeditions...the chaos of the day and a fraction before we actually get out the door. Some of the chaos results from each trip being so long and the necessity to have certain things done with the house before we go. But other things are just random "shit happens".

For example this time we are leaving at the end of cool weather and just before hot weather so we wanted to heater turned to cooling...but on the last day we were here (because it was still cool). Then there was getting things planted in the garden which also had to be the last day because of the chance of cool weather. And there was the desire to have the house cleaned before we go.

HENCE on Monday we had three different types of help in and around the house all day. And OF COURSE the gardeners forgot to do something...a very important something...check the sprinkler system. So they were back Tuesday morning. Thank goodness our flight doesn't leave until later.

There is always something of an electronic or money thing that comes up. Phones and computers typically have major issues just days before we leave. In this case, we noted a false charge on our primary credit card on Saturday - the one that has all the rental place charges coming up. This meant calling the company to freeze the card. Wife and I have two separate numbers on the same account and they said that we would be able to use her card still. She tried and it didn't work. Of course I had already called and changed all the upcoming payments to the new card. Call back on Sunday and find that who ever helped us didn't do it right and her card was made good. In addition they said they could get a new card to me that would arrive this morning. It Did! So good on the credit card company.

As is also usual, by around an hour before we are to leave everything calms down. We had our usual debate about how much time to leave ourselves going to the airport. The 'Leave More Time Because It Is An International Flight' argument won. So naturally there was NO ONE in line at the check-in desk and NO ONE in line at TSA Pre. (NO snarky comments from the progeny!!!)

Our route out takes us from Albuquerque to San Francisco. We will have about a 3 hour layover until we board and then we fly direct to Tel Aviv, a 14 hour flight. As fate would have it, we leave 9:40 PM today from San Francisco and arrive at 9:40 PM on Wednesday in Tel Aviv. It's a 21 hour total flight which really isn't too bad for going that long.

There is a magical moment when we get on the International flight and the flight attendant comes around before take off asking if we want a pre-flight champagne. We do...always. We toast each other and toast the start of our next adventure. An internal switch flips inside us and we are truly, truly in travel adventure mode.