The Trip to Houston

It's always easier to post on the day of the events, but sometimes that just isn't possible. Vacations definitely make that harder. I did log in a few times, but never was able to really collect my thoughts and put them down - it was late at night and I was too tired. The days were packed and we had a great time. Who wants to blog with all of that going on?

We are back now, and that in itself was an adventure, but I am getting ahead of myself. Always better to begin with the first part.

We got to the airport after a rocky start with the driver and traffic. The driver talked too much, which was a little annoying, and the traffic on Route 24 East at 1630 was hideous - normal rush hour traffic combined with a zillion people getting an early start to their long weekend. We would have sat in it but the driver knew what to do to get around the mess. We made it to the airport at 1715 and checked our bags in, did the security, and then got onto the Terminal C concourse. We had a bite to eat and not too long after - around 1815 - we boarded the plane. The plane, however, for reasons passing understanding, did not take off until 1755. (It was an 1855 flight.)

The traffic was awful. Who knew that there would be so much traffic for the air. The planes were lined up to get out so it took forever. However, life sometimes gives one a gift... in the form of a good-looking guy with very blue eyes (you know me - a sucker for those striking eyes!) who sat in between Luis and me on our flight. Don't worry - the seating was selected that way. Luis prefers the aisle, I love the window.

I struck up a conversation with Larry and we chatted on and off throughout the flight. He lives in Texas and has travel to New Jersey fairly often; he is an engineer with Verizon. He comes up for training and various other things. He has a wife and two kids in Texas and doesn't like leaving them, but he seems to really like his line of work. Always a plus. At some point we did not have much conversation - Continental played a movie called 27 Dresses with what's-her-name from Grey's Anatomy. Luis said it was cute. I wasn't interested and read most of The Demon Lord of Karanda (thank you, David Eddings, for keeping me distracted!). The flight was uninteresting both in terms of the general flight and the view - it was cloudy, then dark. Sigh.

We had the usual cheeseburger on the flight, which assuaged my hunger for the latter part of the trip, but I will tell you that in one way, this was a terrible flight. I had some heartburn on and off during the day, and once in the air, it was quite bad. When we got in and got our luggage and was walking the long distance from Terminal E to the main area, I had to stop at one point. Not only did my chest hurt from the heartburn but my back was burning, too. It was not merely painful, it was excruciating. I was starting to get really scared. It did finally subside but not right away. I was thinking that I might need to call 9-1-1. Not just a little scary.

The rest of the night and the whole trip I had no problem with heartburn. I normally don't have heartburn, so this was rather notable.

We landed around 2245 local time (one hour behind my normal time) and were at the airport for a while - Bush International Airport is enormous. And what a heinous name... I think it is named for the Senior Bush, but I don't have any liking for either one of them. I have to say that the idiocy of the current Bush is so overwhelming that I really can't recall much of what the first Bush did in the Oval Office. That certainly says something.

Nothing positive.

We got our rental car (a very nice Saturn Aura) and headed out to Cypress via Mapquest directions. It wasn't too hard. We did find our way there just after midnight and pulled into the wrong driveway, then found the correct house just a couple houses up the street. We pulled in behind the white car as directed, then Luis went to the garage door and typed in the code - and nothing happened. He did it several times and nothing happened. I was starting to get worried - not so much that we had the wrong code or anything but more that some neighbour was going to take a leak in the middle of the night, look out the window and see us and call the local constabulary, thinking that we were casing the house!

Luis began to walk around the house, and I thought I would give the door a try. It opened the first time I did it. Hmmmm.

The house inside was gorgeous! And there was the occaisional furtive bark of a dog. Oh, good, fur!

We looked at our directions and they read upstairs, first door on the left. Okay. I took my onboard bag up the stairs and looked around. There was a far right door, another right next to it, two open doors, another closed door to the left and then one far left door. OK. That must be it. I quietly walked to that door, very lightly tapped on it and opened it and heard a youngish voice say, "Hello?"

Yikes!

I certainly wasn't expecting that and niether was the inhabitant. A tall, young guy came out of the darkness and introduced himself as Matt and smiled and welcomed us and I apologised profusely. I hated waking someone up at half-midnight! He was very sweet and showed me the right door and then Luis came up and we got our bags in.

I have to say that at first I was really surprised when I opened the door! There was not one but two beds - two single beds! - and I had to laugh. I'm not used to sleeping in the same room but not the same bed with Luis! However, in a rare first, the bed was very comfortable - I slept like a baby! Every time we travel I usually end up an invalid in the morning from excruciating back pain brought on by a torturous bed. This was a nice change!

I unpacked my bag into the one empty drawer and then crashed.

Welcome to Houston!