April 16th: The Arrival

Wow. Murphy kept me awake all night by pawing my face or vomiting. I had just had a lucid dream for the first time in my life...it had barely begun before Murphy woke me up. I finally got fed up at 3:30 and got up. I had a nice, slow start to the morning. I eventually had a small bowl of cereal, using up the milk. I called father at 4:45 and went into the basement to triple-check my packing. Everything's there! I wanted to make a clean escape to avoid Mina crying at the top of the stairs, and I succeeded. I had to go back upstairs to get my eyeglass case, then I left. I stopped in the road to gaze in wonder at the blazing stars. Father was pulling the car out of the garage as I got there, and I hopped in. We had a very nice drive to the airport, as nice as I had daydreamed. I sighed, went into the airport and was confronted by a huge line. It did move fairly quickly. Fifteen minutes later I got to the security point. A woman was asking to cut through lest she miss her flight. I passed through security and went upstairs to the gate. They have really done major renovations to this place! I took my Dramamine and sat down. I realized that I never gave Father my garage door opener. Never mind, the keypad works well. I typed this out. They called for preboarding but had no takers. We got on the plane at 6:30, but they had to de-ice the wings. We took off at 6:50. It is a glorious morning. We are at altitude and the are serving drinks. The dramamine is making me drowse a bit. It is a glorious morning. We are at altitude and the are serving drinks. The dramamine is making me drowse a bit.

It was an uneventful flight. We arrived 30 minutes early and debarked to the tarmac. When I got into the terminal, my next flight wasn't listed yet. I called mother to see how she is doing, the doctor has not called yet. I had breakfast at the Chili's near my arrival gate, then walked from Terminal D to Terminal C and all the way to gate C46. There I waited for my flight. It was a long wait, so I synced my Treo and downloaded a book and posted to the SLT Board. Roger left his predictions there, things look good! At 11:30, I boarded my flight and prepared for Oklahoma City!

It was a fairly routine flight, and it was completely clear until we got within 100 miles of Oklahoma City. Then we passed through a cumulus field and landed at 20 minutes to one. It's a nice, small airport, and I called the shuttle bus to pick me up. The bus came fairly quickly, I barely had time to say hello to Roger on the cell phone before it got there. We were stuck there for a while as we waited for another lady to make the bus. I got to my hotel, and Roger was at the registration desk. He looks great! He has taken off a tremendous amount of weight. I wish I could do the same. Anyway, he said that the prospects look fun for tomorrow, and maybe even tonight, but Sunday through possibly Thursday could be really, really interesting. I'm not counting any chickens yet, especially considering what happened last year on the Northland tour. I got up to my room, which is at the end of the hotel, next to everybody else's room. I grabbed my GPS and went out to grab a few caches. There was one very close to the hotel and two a few blocks up. It didn't take long to grab them, and now I can add Oklahoma to the list of states I have found geo-caches in. I came back to the hotel after making missed phone connections with Jacquie, and went up to her room which is only two doors down from mine. We are all very excited to be here, and we hope everybody else gets here soon so that maybe we can actually go out and chase today. Wouldn't that be a treat!