Good Month-Bad Month

We are back. First I am sad to say my Dad has passed. He would have been 90 on the 28th, but was just so tired. We were told he would have maybe six months. He only had 5 days. Tom and I had to hurry and make plans to go to upstate New York. We decided to fly out of Tucson. We called the Escapee Park in Benson, Az. They were ever so nice, and agreed to keep Emily for us. We gave them a key, and kept her plugged in. They don't usually let folks just take off and leave like that. Because of the circumstances, they said not to worry. Off we went to the airport. We had a very uneventful flight, with a slight hold over in Chicago. We arrived in Syracuse, N.Y. Our daughter met us along with our niece, Diana, and of course. George the granddog. He was so thrilled to see us. Cried all the way to my brother's house.
Dad had military honors, and he would have been so proud to be saluted and carried by all of his grandchildren. It was all just the way he would have wanted it. He will be missed.
We stayed for a week altogether. We visited with my Aunt Izzy and Uncle Don. They are both in their 90s. Aunt Izzy is recovering from a bout of pneumonia. She seems to be doing somewhat better. It was good to see them. Also, stayed and made sure Mom was doing OK before we left. I must say, she is doing much better than I expected. They had been married almost 62 years. The week before Dad died was the bad time for her. At least they had time to say good-bye.
Then came the trip back. Let me just tell you, it was not the most wonderful trip we ever took. Something told me when I hugged my brother at the airport, something was going to go wrong. I'll tell you the story, and you make up your own mind. First of all, they took my hair spray-non aerosol. They they took my body wash. Almost empty. hen they took my brand new face wash. Now I was getting mad. Then they took my tooth paste. Again, almost gone. Tom's wasn't taken. He had more in his tube than I did, but they took mine. I was not happy!!!Tom kept saying let's just go. Man, I would have made a fuss. Tom was afraid that they would take the cross form Dad's casket. I never thought of that. We kept it with us for safe keeping. I left. Mad-but I didn't argue. Mind you, all of these items had all gone through the airport in Tucson. Syracuse was just a little picky. I suppose it is all a good thing, good security. But what was I going to do with face wash? Scrub 'em to death?
Then we boarded the plane and took off. We were in the air for about 20 minutes, and the beverage service started. I took a glass of ginger ale. I had it about 2 minutes when I spilled it all over my lap. It looked like I wet my pants. Heck, it FELT like I wet my pants-except it wasn't warm. I had to sit like that all the way to Atlanta. Oh----Atlanta. Nice sunny Atlanta. WRONG! They were in the middle of a snow storm. No snow for 5 years, and it snows when we want to land and catch a flight to Tucson. When we hit the ground, we couldn't get to our gate. Planes were lined up for deicing, and a plane was in our spot. We waited and waited. Finally we taxied to our spot. At least we thought it was our spot. They let us off on the tarmac, and we had to run through the rain in to the building. They didn't tell us that, and we all just carried our coats. One good thing was no one thought anything about my wet pants. We ran to get our plane, but it was to late. It was already dispatched. We had to stand in a really long line to get other tickets for the next day. First they were going to route us through Minneapolis, Minn., but that flight got cancelled. Thank God! Can you imagine? Atlanta to Minnesota to Tucson? Crazy. We took stand-by at 11 the next morning, and tickets for 6:40 p.m. the next evening. We were sent to the Comfort Inn, which was very nice. I did have some different jeans in my bag, so at least I could change. We were also given meal vouchers. After all this we were so hungry, we went down to the restaurant for something to eat. It was Mexican. WE DON"T LIKE MEXICAN! We did find some garlic shrimp on the menu that we ordered. It really wasn't too bad. Of course the salad had guacamole and sour cream. Yuck. We ate the rice and shrimp, and called it a day.
We got to the airport before 9 a.m. The lines where like the most popular ride at Disney World. We went through security without a hitch, and off we went to see if we could get on the stand-by flight. Nope. Not to be. We stayed there till the plane left, and went to the gate for the 6:40 p.m. flight. What was really neat, was that we met someone that graduated from Waterville High School a few years before me. We had both been in the Waterville area for funerals. It's a small world. We ate a sandwich and just sat around waiting to go. When we finally got going, it was the biggest plane for the whole trip. Tom and I were not seated together, he was just in front of me. When the beverage service came I hung onto that baby really tight. I wasn't spilling this one! We got on the ground, and hoped out bag was waiting for us. Wonder of wonders-there it was. The way things had gone, that was a miracle. The rest of the trip back to Emily took us about 40 minutes, and boy, were we glad to be back home. Did we ever sleep!
Tomorrow I'll tell you all about what we have been doing since we came back. Home is where you park it.