Risk-taking

When it comes to the corona virus, I'm a believer.  I want you to know that right now, because I've seen people on the Internet say it's a hoax.  So why would we throw caution to the wind and travel at a time like this?  After all, we're old.  

I don't know, but we did.  We haven't been to visit our son and his family in Georgia for a long time, and he faithfully visits us every July.  He and his wife bought a house in the last year or two, and recently he bought a cute little John Deere tractor Cliff was interested in seeing.  We also have a great-granddaughter down there who is at a fun age.  

We always drove down before, a 12- or 13-hour journey.  Cliff has to do all the driving, and long trips absolutely wear him out these days.  Originally, the grandson was going to go along and help drive, but the trip would still wear us out, no matter how many drivers there were.  I looked at air fares and found them fairly reasonable, while knowing Cliff has resisted flying ever since his one and only commercial airline trip to Seattle for the metal plating company he worked for.  Surprisingly, it wasn't difficult to get him to consider flying this time; maybe he thought it was just a good day to die.  

Everything I've read tells me that because the air in planes circulates so often, there shouldn't be much chance of exposure to germs.  Of course, the airports are another story.  At least masks were worn throughout.  And by the way, every one of the three planes we boarded was full... not a vacant seat anywhere.  And they are using all the seats now, so people are shoulder to shoulder.

I think one of my husband's fears was that we wouldn't be able to navigate the airports and find our flights, but I assured him we'd be OK.  From 2000 to 2005, when I was working at Kohl's Distribution Center and had a little extra money, I flew alone several times:  I went to four or five "chat room reunions" to meet up with Internet friends I'd met in an AOL Christian chat room, as well as visiting my sister in her winter home in Mission, Texas, a couple times. I'll admit that I bungled my way across the skies and through airports, knowing very little about what I was doing; but I learned that if you ask for help, there's always someone who will help and advise you.  I remember one time I was walking a long hall in some big airport where I had a layover, not knowing where to go next.  It was late in the day and not another soul was in sight.  I walked and walked, finally coming out of the passageway, and saw a lone janitor.  I told him where I needed to be and he led me to my destination, which was quite a way from where he was.  I don't care if I'm embarrassed, I will ask someone... and someone always helps.  I'm not sure Cliff likes my methods, but he did find out how many kind, helpful people there are in the world.

Kansas City International Airport has always been easy to navigate, a small airport you could hardly get lost in if you tried.  That may not always be true, since they are in the middle of a big expansion, but I don't think it will be so huge that you have to ride a plane-train from one location to another, as we did when we landed in Atlanta!  I purchased our tickets and our daughter Rachel printed them off for me.  Twenty-four hours before leaving, I checked in online, something I learned from Rachel when we went to Mexico a couple of years ago; it's a good thing I did, since the plane was overbooked; at least two parties had to wait until the next flight.  

Oh, wait!  I must tell you about this:  As you may have noticed, Cliff wears overalls all the time.  He had asked Rachel, who travels frequently for her job, about all those metal buttons and hooks on his overalls.  Would they be a problem, going through security?  She assured him they wouldn't; she told us that at least we wouldn't have to take our shoes off because of our ages.  Well, the lady directing us through the X-ray DID have a problem with overalls, lectured us, and told me, "Have him wear slacks next time!"  But in the world's busiest airport in Atlanta, when we headed home, they had no problem at all sending him through with a smile.

 There was a layover in Charlotte, with a nice cushion of time for us to find our connection.   We were to land in Atlanta, where our son was picking us up.  While we waited for our next plane we ate the sandwiches I'd brought along (yes, I'm a cheapskate).

....... to be continued