“Traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a
storyteller.”
Ibn
Battuta
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| Lake Frederick, New York |
Leaving
on an airplane – hopefully. It was Wednesday night and I’m
heading to West Point, New York the United States Military Academy.
After working till 5:30, I run home, change out of my uniform, do a
few last minute things, and then take off with Josh, my Uber driver
and awesome son, driving me to Augusta Regional Airport in Georgia.
My flight was to take off at 7:50 pm and I wanted to be there early
to make sure I was on the flight. I guess getting there early is
from Joe being in the Army and having to be prompt, if not incredibly
early everywhere we go. So Josh, drops me off at the airport, where I
say goodbye to him, wishing he could come with me to New York, but it
was not to be.
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| Beautiful clock at Augusta Regional Airport |
I get inside the airport and there are no lines and walk right up and get my boarding pass. It was so smooth and easy since I had no luggage, just me, my book, and my purse. I thought to myself that I must look pretty suspicious since I only bought a one way ticket and I had no luggage. Well, I guess I was right about that as when I went through customs, I must have looked like someone up to no good. I went through the machine, where you stand on the footprints with your arms raised and a camera goes around you. When I stepped out, the security lady says to me, “Shug, you have a couple suspicious spots I need to check.” I looked back at the machine and there on the screen was a cartoon like figure with a few circles marking the suspicious spots. She was very nice in that before she touched anywhere she explained what she was going to do. So feeling like I was going to prison, I was patted down my legs and around my waist. I wanted to joke with the lady who was being serious saying something like, “That was good for me, was it good for you?” But I didn’t think she would find the humor in it so I giggled to myself as I started to walk away. Oh no, she wasn’t done with me quite yet. Then she asked me to put out my hands, and she swabbed me for explosive residue. After she wiped my hands down, she put the swab into this machine that analyzed the results and it read all clear. I passed the test. Woo Hoo. I asked the lady what would happen if something would have been on my hands and she told me an alarm would go off. I was permitted to carry on after that, put on my shoes, and go to my gate for boarding.
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| Raymond Floyd, famous golfer |
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| John Deere Tractor |
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| James Browns snazzy clothes |
Now
just so you know, Augusta’s airport is tiny. There are only four
gates I believe in the whole airport. It is a stress free airport as
no one is rushing anywhere or to do anything. Walking down the
corridor to the gate area just outside the windows on either side,
you will see green grass and a garden area. There is a Raymond Floyd
statue in the airport with a golf club. Who was he you ask. I
didn’t know either so that is where Wikipedia comes in and I found
out her was a great golfer known for his PGA tour career and
Champions Tour. His career spanned from the 1960’s to the 1990’s.
So since Augusta is known for the Masters tournament he was placed
at our quaint airport as an honor. Next is a John Deere Tractor
because There is a plant for making them right here in town. And
then you come up to the “piece de resistance” - the display with
some of James Brown’s amazing outfits and shoes. What an amazing
dresser and talent. He was from Augusta and was a treasured gem.
Then there is the beautiful antique clock that used to be on Broad
Street in Augusta, Georgia. It seemed to be keeping good time in
here whereas it never did when it was downtown. What a gorgeous
clock.
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| Notice the rocking chairs looking out over the runway. |
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| Check out the details on this clock. |
I
love there are rocking chairs to sit in facing the runway. How
lovely, quaint and totally southern. There is one restaurant/bar in
the terminal that closed at precisely 8 pm and the gates came down.
My flight was due to take off at 7:50 pm so I had some time and I sat
down and read my book, a Nicholas Sparks book called “Two by Two”
if you are interested. It is quite a good book so far. My phone
dinged and I checked to see what it was and it showed a delay of 35
minutes for my plane. I was okay with it as I had plenty of time to
get to my connecting flight. I continued to read and heard people
around me saying it was a mechanical issue that they are working on.
Then another announcement came over the loud speaker saying the
flight was delayed for another 30 minutes while they figured out what
was happening with the airplane. The natives were getting a little
restless now but all was still calm. Then about ten minutes later,
came the announcement that there may not be a flight coming in that
night. Okay. About that time, people were on their phones making
plans of what the may need to do. Oh my. Then everyone got in
line to the American Airlines customer service desk to see what we
all could do as far as our connecting flights. What was wonderful
is that the people from Augusta stayed calm and everyone talked with
everyone. “Where are you flying to?” Will you miss your
connecting flight?” and then onto “Do you live in Augusta”
“What brings you here?” on and on.
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| People lining up for vouchers after connecting flights were to be missed. |
When
I got to the counter, the young man trying to make everyone happy
had a stressed smile on his face as he worked hard to get everyone
where they needed to go. He was quick and efficient. He looked at
my tickets and tried to get me on another connecting flight that
night but it wasn’t happening. He did tell me his best option was
to get me on a plane that was leaving Augusta at 10 pm to Charlotte
that night where they would put me up in a hotel for the night and
fly me out the next morning. So tomorrow I would fly out of
Charlotte’s airport and fly into JFK (John F. Kennedy) Airport in
New York City in the morning instead of Newark, my original
destination. Oh my.
After
letting Joe know that I would not make it tonight, I had to call and
change my car rental from Newark to JFK. That all worked smoothly.
As I sat at the gate waiting for the plane to come in, I watched the
people around me and listened. It seemed as if the majority of
people would miss their connecting flights and be delayed until
tomorrow. One lady was a soldier coming home from deployment and
hadn’t been home in over 9 months. She was delayed till the next
night. She just said, “Well I’ve been gone this long, what does
another day matter.” Then there was the girl who was going to
meet her boyfriends parents for the first time and would be delayed
near a day. But all remained calm and their was no anger, it was
all just matter of fact. My situation was good compared to some and
I was not stressed over it but actually relieved that I was able to
get such an early flight in the morning. I was only apprehensive
about driving in New York City.
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| Our little shuttle plane with my friend running to get out of the picture. |
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| Notice that I am in the last seat in the back of the plane. |
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| Weird looking mist coming from vents cooling the plane off. |
Finally
the plane arrives, and we get boarded. I saw the pilot and co-pilot
board and realized they were younger than any of my children. As I
looked for my seat, I found it was the last seat on the plane in the
very back next to wear the stewardess sits during the flight. I had
a window seat and no one was next to me so it was nice. As we were
sitting on the tarmac, you could see all this steam in the airplane
as it was trying to stay cool. It looked a little scary and as I sat
I wondered if this was the same plane they did the repairs on
tonight. We took off over Augusta and headed to Charlotte. That is
when the stewardess sitting near me started coughing and sneezing.
Oh my. I asked if it were allergies and she said no – just a
cold. Where’s a mask when you need it. I did feel bad for her
as that went on for over an hour. As we descended over the city of
Charlotte, I could see fireworks lighting up the area all over town.
They were like tiny puffs of color from the sky.
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| My hotel room for the night at La Quinta Inns and Suites donated by American Airlines. |
After
arriving in Charlotte, I got in another American Airline Customer
Service line and when I got to the counter, I handed the ticket to
the attendant and she in turn gave me a new ticket for tomorrow, a
hotel voucher, and a meal ticket. She told me where to get the
shuttle and off I went. I called the number of the hotel and they
had a shuttle on its way. The shuttle arrived only a few minutes
later, and loaded up a couple other people and we headed to the
hotel. After getting to the La Quinta Hotel and getting into my room, which
was lovely, I realized I had never slept in a hotel room by myself.
That was an odd feeling but I was thankful that everything went that
smooth. Kudos to American Airlines that made a bad situation nice.
Rise
and shine, early the next day, and down to the lobby for breakfast.
I’m not so much a breakfast person, so I got a yogurt and hot tea
and sat and watched the news waiting for my shuttle to depart.
Everything went off like clockwork. As I showed my ID before going
through security, the guard looks at my name, Sepielli and says,
“That is an Irish name right.” I said no it is Italian but my
husband was raised by the Irish. I continued through security again
and would you believe it, I got to be patted down again and swabbed.
“Sweetie, I’m just going to touch you here and there, okay?” I
am not sure why I am targeted on many occasions, but I am. wonder
how they profile people – older lady traveling alone with a smile
on her face – She looks guilty of having to much fun -she must be
the one. Well, I passed there test again and off I went to my
gate. This time the plane went off on time and all was well.
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| Art at JFK. |
I was happy to get another window seat. We flew straight up and into the clouds and for a while the plane got dark and you couldn’t see anything outside the window. Then we emerged from the clouds and realized we were on the other side of the clouds. After a while, I looked out the window again and now saw we were flying over the ocean. It looked like glass. The waters were so calm and you could see the paths where the boats had been for a long distance. The sun appeared on the ocean as an iridescent shimmering light on the water, sparkling, and then disappearing. Then land appeared. How odd and lonely the land appeared on this side of the plane with nothing but ocean past the slivers of land. I realized we were flying over the Outer Banks in North Carolina as there were long stretches of narrow uninhabited islands with beautiful beaches and no homes. The long narrow islands continued and got larger the further north we went and then you could start to see homes appearing and a more inhabited area. Then I came to the epiphany that God created these narrow islands to protect the main land. Just another of God’s miracles.
The
pilot announced we were descending into JFK and I looked out again
and seeing the vastness of the ocean. The lonely tankers and cargo
ships traveling to places unknown were scattered across the serene
water. It was a perfect landing and then we were off.
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| My rental car with all the bells and whistles. |
When
I got off the plane at JFK in New York City and was walking around
the terminal, I realized everyone I passed was speaking a foreign
language. I did not hear anyone speaking English. Did I just land in
Happenstance-town? I felt like I just arrived in another country.
It was an odd feeling knowing I was in the good old USA and couldn’t
understand anyone. If you haven’t flown into this airport it is a
little confusing. I was directed to the air train that would take
me to where the rental cars were. First I got on the wrong train
that went around the airport. I jumped off at the first stop and
went to the other track and found where to go, Jamaica. Am I in NYC?
A My train pulled up and I hopped on. It was an about a 10 minute
train ride till I got off and went to the Hertz counter to pick up my
rental. The counter lady was very helpful especially when I couldn’t
get my drivers license out of my purse. It was in a clear pocket
jammed in there but was so tight, it just wouldn’t budge. We both
gave up so she had to put in the information from my card into the
computer by hand. As she goes to hand me the contract, I notice I’m
to return the car to Newark, NJ and not Stewart Airport in Newburgh,
NY. She told me to contact Orbitz and have them change the
destination. I did and it all worked out.
Now
for driving in the city. Yikes. It was a nervous racking with all
the crazy drivers. It was not as bad as I feared but they do drive
wild here. I was tough a persevered. I drove another two hours and
then I pulled into my destination for the next four days – Lake
Frederick, NY. Home again, Home again, jiggety jigg. We have done
our West Point trip now for 30 years. This is our home away from
home. I pulled up to the camp and had a wonderful greeting by
everyone. I felt like a celebrity.
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| Sunset at Lake Frederick. Glad to be here. |
Well, this is where my tale ends and all the fun really begins. The moral of the story, if there is such a thing is, when traveling it doesn’t always work out as planned, but make the most of it. This trip was an experience with lots of kinks in it but I never got upset. Thankfully American Airlines was wonderful throughout even when things became difficult. I did not like missing time with my friends, but I got there safely and all is well and met a few nice people along the way. Good bye for now.
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."
John Wooden
#American Airlines #LakeFrederickNewYork #MilitaryCampgroundsNY
#NewYork #WestPointNewYork #BeautifulPlacesNewYork
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