Travel Day 2

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 at 11:59 pm

Ugh, what a day! Monday ended a little after midnight when I was talking to my sister in our Milwaukee hotel and realized I would get three hours of sleep before getting on the shuttle for the airport. We sadly but quickly wrapped up the interesting conversation and I finished packing to be ready to get up, get dressed and go a few hours later.

The day started out as planned and I got to the airport two hours before my flight with a very light breakfast (that’s what happens when you leave before continental breakfast is served). Unfortunately I put my credit card in the self-check-in kiosk wrong and didn’t have my confirmation number with me since I haven’t had easy access to a printer in a few months so I had to pay 9.95 for a month of airport wifi at most airports across the country. (I didn’t see the point of paying $5 for an hour when $10 was a month long.) That took nearly an hour and I had some fruit from my kitchen to finish so I sat down to eat them. The plums were good but the line at the security check point was long. I finally got through it all when my ticket said they would start boarding. I got to my gate to Atlanta about ten minutes later and they just started boarding the first people so I ran to the restroom next to my gate and got in line before the line completely disappeared. I wound up between a college girl immersed in her headphones and an older lady going for a lady’s trip with her friends across the aisle. I didn’t complain since I slept most the trip, waking up a few times to change positions, but mainly sleeping.

I woke up as we set down in Atlanta and hurried through the airport. The place was huge, I was still tired and cranky as well as hungry, and I had a little over an hour until boarding time. As I neared my gate I realized there were no food places near my gate so I grabbed a chicken sandwich and fries with a water from Checkers as I hurried past. Checkers is a popular burger joint in the South and one of my favorite fast food places from when I was living in Florida for a year. Yum! I had the fries and half the water done by the time I sat down at the gate to eat the burger. I love those fries (dreamy sigh). Anyways, I had about ten minutes before boarding started and I listened to a college soccer player discuss her trip with a kid, maybe ten, who was going down to Florida for a while. Kind of amusing as the boy’s mom or sister sat on the floor nearby comfy among their bags, half listening to the conversation while reading her book. The plane finally boarded and I was in a window seat with only one person between me and the aisle, a business woman. That’s all I remember since I slept much better on that flight and was jolted awake when we landed in Kansas City.

From there I left the plane to find myself in a terminal with only one other gate. Talk about small airport! Anyways, I got in a Supershuttle van to Lawrence and talked to the driver some during the forty minute drive. He was an immigrant from Somalia and Kenya that’s been in the US for three years now. He’s still learning English so it wasn’t the most intellectual conversation but I enjoyed hearing about some of his large family and why he chose to leave Africa when some of his family didn’t. We got to the hotel about 1pm and I was disappointed to learn it wasn’t on or really near the campus as I had hoped since the hotel used the college name in its title. Oh well, I relaxed some in the hotel but I was hungry and needed to find the place for my orientation tomorrow. Good thing I went looking. After a few mistakes reading the vague map, I found the meeting place two hours later and it took another hour to walk straight from the meeting place on the far side of campus back to the hotel.

I’m rather disappointed in the town. I’m used to living in a big city or a full town in a small area. This is the definition of a college town in that the only big thing is the college. The town is mostly houses for college students, people who work at or run the school, a few locals and two sets of a few blocks on a street that pass as a “downtown” area. (Luckily there is a local coop so there is a grocery store in town.) How am I ever going to stay sane and active if school work doesn’t take 24/7 like people seem to tell me? Oh wait, thank God for the internet and campus wide wifi! Who needs shopping or games when nature is a great gym (if I ever have the motivation to run the many hills around here) and the internet can show me anything I want to see (and a lot I don’t want to see)?

Oh well, I’m here now. Tomorrow I have the full day of orientation, then I want to explore the campus some and locate my dorm as well as the greyhound station for Thursday. Time for bed so G’night world, I hope tomorrow is awesome for everyone.

Li'l B's Ramblings

Travel Day 2

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