Mom's phone alarm went off around 7 and she got up and grabbed a shower before everyone else got up while I laid in bed for another few minutes. I could hear Amy and Rhonda stirring in their room getting ready for their day. After Mom was done in the bathroom, I ran in there really quickly to wash my face and collect all of my toiletries so I could get those packed up in the suitcase.
I got most of my stuff organized and then we went downstairs to see what Mindy made for breakfast. She had toast with various jellies, scrambled eggs and sausage prepared. We sat in the same places we did the day before and enjoyed breakfast. I wasn't sure how or what was available to us once we got to the airport during the rest of our long travel day.
We finished breakfast and went back upstairs to continue getting ready to go. Our flight left Portland at 2:35 so we had to be there a couple hours beforehand. We took our luggage downstairs, being careful not to fall down them, because it would have been easy to do with one wrong step. I always bring home more than when I came with. I did bring more with me on this trip than I did in NYC because I didn't know what the weather was going to be like in Massachusetts or Maine. That day the high was supposed to be in the low 70's later on that day. Mindy said that was super unusual for this time of year in Maine.
We helped Amy out to the Jeep. She had a long drive ahead of her back to Carlisle, Pennsylvania...which was roughly 500 miles from Mindy's house. I had no idea which way she was going to drive but that is about an 8 to 9-hour drive with some stops. We thanked Amy for being a part of the trip even though she missed part of it because she was sick. She said she had fun anyway and it was good to see us again. We told her to check in every once and a while throughout the day to let us know how she was doing. She told us she would. She backed out and headed to the highway.
We went back inside and continued getting ready. I went through the house one more time and took some photos because her house was so cool!
I sure hope someday we get to come here again and maybe go to Augusta, Bangor or Acadia National Park. Then go to Bar Harbor and get a beer from the brewery.
We started packing up Mindy's car and left for the Portland International Jetport around 11 a.m. Mindy told us it would take us about 40 minutes to get there, depending on traffic of course. Mindy said it was pretty easy to get in and out of the airport since it was a smaller international airport...kinda the same size as the Spokane Airport.
We followed the departure signs and found the Southwest Airlines drop off zone. Mindy pulled over, we grabbed our luggage, thanked Mindy for her hospitality, gave out some hugs and took a selfie. She told us safe travels and got back into her car to go take her Halloween decorations down and replace them with Christmas ones.
We wheeled our luggage into the check in area, went to the kiosk, got our tickets and bag tags, had to explain to Mom and Rhonda how to do them again and got in line to drop off our luggage. This went quicker than we thought it would. We went through security, none of us needed further screening and then walked to our gate to see where it was. We set up camp and I got up to walk around to see what this small airport had to offer.
After some walking around, I brought back a Coke Zero and some popcorn. We sat at the gate, chatted and I did the five waypoint Adventure Lab. It was one of those multiple-choice ones you can do from anywhere in the airport. I told Ben we were at the airport waiting for our first leg of our long travel day. I told him we would be home late. As it got closer to our boarding time, I told Mom and Rhonda that this could be the last time we are able to eat actual food. They said that was probably true. Rhonda and I set out to find some sort of "to go" food to bring with us while Mom stayed at our gate watching our stuff.
The Jetport really didn't have a lot of stuff to choose from, but we did find a brewery restaurant that could get us our food really quickly and package it up onto a "to go" container for us. Sadly, the ham and Swiss sandwich and chips were like $14 but it was better than not eating anything until we got home...which was a long time from then. The Portland Jetport is significant because this is where September 11, 2001 officially started. Two hijackers rented a car, drove to the jetport, dumped their rental car, checked in, went through security (the guy who screened them thought something was off about them and regrets to this day not screening them further), they boarded a plane, and their connecting flight was American Airlines Flight 11 at Boston-Logan. I sat there remembering what I was doing that fateful day. It was surreal sitting there thinking that 9/11 began in the airport I was sitting in.
We boarded the plane and got situated. We sat on the right side of the plane behind the wings. I got the window seat, Mom sat in the middle and Rhonda got the aisle seat. We took off on time and headed southwest to Baltimore, Maryland, our second leg of our trip. This was a layover we didn't have to change planes. On the way down, I spent most of the time writing about our experiences in my journal. Mom watched a movie and Rhonda read her book. The flight was a little less than two hours.
The pressure of the plane made my stuffy nose angry, and I went through a lot of tissues I had stashed in my backpack...wearing a mask on the plane made it worse, but it was necessary. I was getting really tired of blowing my nose.
We started to descend into Baltimore, and I was hoping we didn't have to sit on the plane very long. Once we got to the gate, about half of the passengers got off and the other half stayed on. They must have been going to Denver or Seattle with us. I thought before new passengers got on that I should use the restroom, so I didn't have to on our flight to Denver. When I got back, I saw that there was an Adventure Lab but sadly, you had to be in the airport to walk around do it. Bummer. I just sat there and continued writing notes in the notebook. The new passengers joined us, got situated and we were back in the air within the hour.
During the three-hour flight to Denver, I continued writing in my notebook as I remembered stuff that we did. I had a list of caches, Adventure Labs, covered bridges and lighthouses that we found and saw. I wanted to get it as organized as I possibly could because I knew I wouldn't get to it for a few months (I was behind on my blogs.) As we were descending into Denver, something happened, and we had to ascend and make another loop to the airport again. We weren't sure if it was because of a busy runway, weather or something else. As we got ready to land for real, a guy sitting next to us saw our Seahawks sweatshirts and asked us to take Russell Wilson back because he was sucking it up this year. We told him that we were surprised how his level of play regressed. Earlier that fall the Seahawks beat Denver in Seattle 17-16 in Primetime.
We deplaned and walked to our next gate, which seemed like it took forever to get there. It was a short layover, so I wasn't sure how much time we had to find food. There really weren't very many places open or worth eating at. So, I trucked it down the concourse to see what was available. We needed something to eat since it will be after 10:30 before we get home. I did manage to find a cafe that served sandwiches, so I got another ham and Swiss with BBQ chips and took it back to the gate with me. I shared the other half with Mom while we sat there. I did the two Adventure Labs, Welcome to Colorful Colorado and Welcome to Colorado, which were five waypoints each for a total of 10 for the end of our trip. We finally got to board and left Denver at 8:10 p.m.
I found out the Cougars beat Stanford and the lame Astros won the World Series.
Again, I wrote in my notebook for a while and then got tired, so I closed my eyes for a bit. I continued blowing my nose and continued getting tired of it. I saw that I was running low on tissues and hoped that I had enough to make it home.
We got into Seattle around 10:45, got our luggage (I was really excited to see that orange suitcase on that carousel) and Rhonda's husband picked us up in her SUV. I was glad he brought her vehicle because the last time he picked us up, he was in his truck, and we had to put our luggage in the back of his truck while it was raining. He took us all back to my house. I was so glad my Mom parked her Expedition at my house over the week, so I didn't have to drive her into Rainier.
It was late so I got in a shower, put some of my stuff away and crawled into bed after taking the last of my Sudafed. I was so glad to be in my own bed instead of a hotel bed or a blow-up mattress. I fell asleep instantly and slept until almost noon the next day.
Some notes from the trip:
Altogether we walked about 120,780 steps which is about 50.33 miles
Went to four new states (Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont)
10 new counties (3 MA, 4 ME, 2 NH and 1 VT)
Found 98 caches in total
65 of those were Adventure Labs
33 of those were actual caches and of those caches we found 13 virtuals, 2 earthcaches and 18 traditionals
We found the oldest cache in Maine (GC128)
Saw 6 six covered bridges and 6 lighthouses
I tried blueberry and maple BBQ sauce and four different kinds of beers
I will have to come back over to the east coast to visit Rhode Island and Connecticut to finish off the New England states
I am not sure where our next adventure will take us, but I am sure we will soon find out.
Next Adventure: Celebration of Life: Remembering Grandpa Dennis
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