It was precisely 30 days, 6 beds and 4 states after our arrival in Newark. As the plane descended that day, CavGirl shouted “Green!” with glee over seeing so much green that is decidedly missing in the desert. It was a great vacation. My one complaint was that I didn’t get as much sleep as I wanted (and I didn’t get to go to Fenway). This was partly because my in-laws don’t believe in using shades, blinds or anything else that blocks the light from entering the windows. This means the CavKids got up early. They would inevitably decide to wake me up.
This morning was no different, though a little bit earlier. For government work, I’d say around 6:30 or so they roosted me from my slumber. It would be the beginning of a long day, that would not end until about 3:30 in the morning after crossing the country. It was not as strange the first trip, but strange in its own way.
After our good-byes, we climbed into the Envoy for the long trip to NJ. Deciding to save CavWife from car sickness, I sat in the middle section. I thought that after we got out of the mountains we’d switch. I … was …. wrong. This meant I spent about 4 hours unable to stretch my legs except for the stops at rest areas necessitated by traveling with 2 young children and 2 retirees.
Finally we arrived at one of CavWife’s sister’s home. She fed us a late lunch. The kids were able to get some exercise in the pool. Soon they beckoned me to join them. I dragged my aching back into the pool while CavWife spent time talking with her parents and 2 of her sisters. At one point I inadvertently ran CavGirl over with the raft CavSon was in. She was a trooper, hanging on and bobbing back up without getting scared. Ah, progress.
Then back into the car for the ride to Newark and the airport. This time I lodged myself into the front passenger’s seat. No, didn’t call shotgun. After another hour or so in the car, we arrived and were dropped off. We paid the sky caps to take care of our bags rather than wait in a long line. He must have been new because our boarding passes took forever. His name was long, and unpronounceable. “Welcome to America! Here, have a job checking our bags.” He must have thought us a strange culture.
We made our way through security, and then the fun started. We were in the same terminal but all the things we didn’t notice in our previous exhaustion soon became apparent. It is a smaller terminal. Operative word here is smaller. There was precisely one sit down restaurant. We didn’t want to sit down for dinner. It was around 6 and we wanted something to carry on to the plan. Mrs. Obama would be happy, there was no McDonalds. We were not so happy. There was only a newstand that sold $8 sandwiches. Yes, $8 for prepackaged sandwiches you could get at 7-11 for half that. You have to love the whole captive passenger thing.
Cavman Considers 