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All my bags are packed

 




I logged into Facebook this afternoon saw that in 2013, on this very same day, I was packing to go somewhere. Have no idea where, but here I am packing again. I tend to travel in August or September as they are the more off season travel months, with kids back at school but the weather where I like to travel—the UK, Ireland, Montreal—still good. 

So here I am, packing again after a very stressful time wondering if I would actually be able to go, what with COVID strengthening again. I have described my experiences in a previous post. Tonight, it seems all systems are go. I have my pre-flight COVID test tomorrow morning in Phoenix. I feel totally fine and as far as I know I haven’t been exposed to anyone who has tested positive. I’ve lived a pretty hermit-like existence these past two weeks, no Zumba, no seeing the grandchildren. After the test, R and I are going for some lunch then heading over to our friends’ Marilyn and Rick’s, to await the test results. If all is well, R will drive back home to Tucson and I will stay at Marilyn and Rick’s overnight. Bless them, they have offered to drive me to the airport for 7:51 a.m., three hours before my scheduled departure from PHX to LAX. I then have a four-hour layover until my flight to Heathrow at 7:00 p.m. I don’t mind hanging out at the airport because I would rather know I was there on time for my flight than risk taking a later flight from Phoenix that gets delayed and I miss the international flight.

I actually got my packing done this morning. I was hoping I’d have more empty space in the case. I probably packed too much, could cut back on some and still be presentable traveling. Oh well, will it make a great deal of difference? Ironically, the things that are taking up most of the room in my carry on are all the different charges I need for my electronics. IPad takes one kind, IPhone another, electric toothbrush, travel WaterPik, FitBit, camera…. 

Still, while I fuss over whether I have all the right chargers, I wonder at how much more connected I will (if I don’t lose anything) be than I ever was when I traveled in my 20s. I remember when I traveled to South Africa in December of 1977. Once I waved my father off at the airport in Montreal, that’s the last he heard from me for three weeks. The last anyone heard from me, except for postcards that arrived at almost the same time as I did. And I was completely dependent on friends showing up at Jo’burg Airport when they said they would, and I don’t even remember how I confirmed my flight back from South Africa. Sometime I’ll write about that trip, it was really something.

Now, though, I will be able to post photos to Facebook whenever I find WiFi in London: and it is fairly ubiquitous there. I will be able to update my blog every night. It’s still a bit confusing, knowing when to keep my phone “off” (airplane mode even off the plane?) and when to turn it back on. I will familiarize myself with that during the long wait at LAX Airport.

And so the new adventure begins. Oh and as to my health journey for my SparkPeople friends who follow, I have now released 7 pounds and a couple of inches so I am really pleased. I plan to do a lot of walking and also log my calories into MyFitnessPal, again whenever I find WiFi. I probably won’t know my weight until I return but I confess with embarrassment that I have packed a tape measure ;) 

Until tomorrow night when I will post a quick update about the test results and my success in entering all the necessary information into VeriFly and gov.uk so I get my “you can enter England” confirmation.

Comments

  1. OneKidsMomSeptember 5, 2021 at 7:03 AM

    Travel certainly has changed. Your entry reminded me that when I flew to Italy in 1987, there was no internet (except the work network, and family were not connected to that). Yet, somehow, my parents managed to arrange for flowers to be in my hotel room when I got home from my first workday. From Nebraska. Mom knew how to work the phones before we could "upload photos" from them.

    Ah... today's travel is different. Be safe, and enjoy your trip!

    ReplyDelete
  2. RosesareblueSeptember 7, 2021 at 2:31 PM

    Packing the tape measure is real dedication .

    ReplyDelete

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