What A "TRIP" - (Pun Intended!)

I haven’t flown in over five years. I am a bumbling traveller...seriously - but just awkward and odd looking enough that I couldn't be a threat. I walked past each part of the terminal with my jaw continuously dropping another millimeter. And then - handed the security guard my baggage claim ticket instead of a boarding pass. I was horrified! He just looked at me with a pitying smile.

And – although my final destintion is really a world in itself, the journey getting there is just as astounding.

I mean – look at this.

It is like they read my mind or something…a Meditation Room! I could picture it in my mind immediately – a calm, quiet room filled with cozy pillows, and soft meditative music playing in a surround-sound, straight to your soul kind of way. And, HECK YEAH - you know I followed the signs to get a picture of the actual room, but alas – it was for business class only. So, my pastel, pillowed low-tone image holds. What the actual room looks like I will never know.

And my journey continued through a virtual time warp, it seems. For as “new age” and “futuristic” as a meditation room in an Eastern New York airport terminal seems, I arrived here – at this Newark, New Jersey total throw-back of a 1950’s diner! Mmmm- Ruby’s tasted good!!!!

I sat there in that glossy red booth, each foot in a large black and white tiled square and The Terminal came to mind. You know – that Tom Hanks movie where he lived IN the airport terminal because of an immigration issue.

I could live here, I think. I passed nearly every necessary ( and unnecessary) daily life-requirement on the way to this sweet little diner. I passed bookstores, coffee shops, beauty salons and spas – retailers of all kinds, and even a sultry looking wine bar that was so inviting I nearly took a seat, at 11:30 am.

I look like a tourist of the most annoying kind; high on life and camera happy. (fyi – they can glare if they like for I tip like a tourist of the best kind. Being a humble server in my rural little ski town – I get it)

I admit it – I am high on life! This trip is the beginning of something much bigger than even I know. I can feel it. Or, more accurately, I feel the need to document it. I don’t know why, but lately my best ideas come from nothing, thin-air if you will, and I find, if I just nod and obey – good things happen.

Kind of like what happened at the first gate I approached this morning. The gate attendant looked stressed through her kind and welcoming smile. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead of talking to me, she spoke into the small amplifier in her left hand. “Hello and welcome to flight 2643. This fight is over booked. I need three volunteers. If you volunteer I will get to your final destination today and give you a $200 flight credit to use within a year.” Intruiging. “And” she added with just a hint of desperation in her voice, “a lunch voucher.”

“Sure” I said, shrugging my shoulders, “I’m traveling alone and in no great hurry.” She looked relieved. In the end, there was enough space on the plane after all (the original issue being something to do with the maximum weight of the the luggage on board and not the number of people), but this sweet woman was so grateful for my “flexibile thinking” (a recently learned skill to be sure) that she gave me an in-flight voucher for a drink! Heck Yeah Baby – I got me a glass of air-merlot!

Stand By…Much more to come!

UPDATED: I'm here but the internet connection is spotty! Come on back later tonight for a bulleted list of "You know Cara is travelling to a warmer climate when..."