Hickory / Charlotte Departure

As much fun as travelling is, it’s still something of a hassle. When you’re going to be gone almost a month, all of those hassles are compounded.

We had to make three trips to Walgreen’s yesterday. The last was for deodorizing baby wipes – essential even for men in their late 40's if your next shower is over 36 hours away and you’ll be in close quarters with people who have not previously made your acquaintance.

It pays to be nice any time you have to sit that close to anyone for an extended period of time. Personal hygiene is crucial to modern day air travel.

Then there are those things that you can’t do until the absolute last minute when it’s time to leave.

We learned that the downstairs thermostat setting has a very significant impact on the heat upstairs – about 4:00 this morning (when we both woke up), it was apparent that 50 degrees downstairs prior to leaving wasn’t necessarily a good idea. Thermostat adjustment has to wait until the last minute.

The same is true for turning the water off. Until that last bathroom trip has happened, there’s simply no point in trying to deal with it.

These tasks were all accomplished, and 8:30 found us on our way to the Hickory Hop for our ride to the Charlotte airport. The only glitch there is that it’s a whopping 19 degrees in Hickory this morning (or it was at 8:30, anyhow), and they hadn’t warmed up the van a lot. Since it’s the height of summer in Thailand and Singapore right now, temperatures there are in the mid 80’s. Thus, no coats and much shivvering in the van from Hickory to Charlotte.

We board the plane to LAX in less than an hour, then we have a long layover there. In the meantime, it’s time for a cup of coffee.