I was all for the trip until the alarm went off at 2:30am. Time for the close-eyed naked shuffle to the Keurig coffee machine. I still have time for a shower for what will be an 18-hour odyssey trip to Puerto Rico. I hadn't quite internalized it yet, but there were to be 3 legs to the journey(Boise -> Minneapolis -> New York -> Puerto Rico). Gads! When the shot of coffee started to kick in around 2:40am, I was beginning to realize that this is how college kids travel south for spring break at the discounted milk run. Yes, it was to be a long day.
We arrived at the airport, only to find security had not yet opened. Odd, you'd think in a great metropolis like Boise Idaho, the hustling energy of the big city would be juiced 24/7. Instead, it was as if the airport forgot to send out the memo, they had all gone home. But the trickle of people eventually ramped up. Mostly, workers arriving for their graveyard shift. My 4am lizard brain realized that if they were waiting here in line with us for security to let us in, who was on the other side brewing up the coffee? If you answered (a - no one), then you were correct. We waited, and eventually, the gates opened so Sandra and I headed down to our gate, sans caffeine.
When we boarded the plane, I looked down at my ticket and saw 15F. Yay! a window seat. It's like winning a $3 scratch off game; it's a fun moment, but not life changing. Got to the row and looked down at it. Hey! Where's the window to my window-seat. Are you kidding me? No window? Didn't know they were cutting back costs on Boeings where they couldn't add a window to every row. Oh well, I'll be out cold in no time.
We arrived in Minneapolis that same morning. I leaned over to Sandra, and said "You, know this counts as visiting a state". Afterall, Sandra has a goal to visit all 50 states in the U.S. So far there are only a few remaining, and I'm going to take the win when I can. She then pulled out the "The Complete Rule of Travel", and recited section-1, paragraph-4 that under no circumstance does walking through an airport count as "visiting" a state. I leaned back, a bit depleted. Inside, internally-- Oh, I'm counting it anyways.
We had a nice (4) hour layover, grabbed some Panda Express and got on to the next leg to New York. This time, Sandra took the window seat where they acdtually had a window. I got to play fat guy in the middle seat.
We arrived at JFK sometime in the afternoon, and thankfully, didn't have much of a layover, but still, we had been traveling for 10 hours so far. We were able to pull into a cantina and finish some last minute items we forgot at home.
Then we were on our way to the gate.
On this leg to Puerto Rico, it was my turn for the window-seat. Sandra tried to pull the ole "a gentleman would...". I put my hand up before she could finish. "I know honey, and as a gentleman, I will take the window seat and assume the risk of being sucked out the window, so you will live to tell the tale". I thought I brilliantly covered the bases. Looking out the corner of my eye, I was not sure she was buying it.
We arrived in Puerto Rico after our day and a half long travel. We were spent, and ready for sleep. We didn't have to shuttle, cab or Uber anywhere as our hotel was at the airport. Awesome. We walked out the door and walked into another one. Our room was small, but clean and it had a TV with ESPN. We watched the second half of the Woman's NCAA game and upon the end of that event, we fouled out, asleep.