You have to leave home but you don’t have to go far to have fodder for a travel blog. Every year Cindy picks a place she wants to visit for her birthday week. Usually it is a city in the USA that she doesn’t know and wants to get to know. We have gone to Memphis, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, and every time it has been a gas. This year she wanted to go to Oklahoma and Kansas City, so I planned the trip to include Oklahoma City, Tulsa and KC.
We got off to a rather difficult start, which involved a trip to Dulles using Lyft. I know we are in a rather remote spot for share riding services - in fact Uber doesn’t even cover our area - so we have not been surprised when Lyft drivers show up in rather old cars, or packing a gun which had to be hidden when we entered Virginia since he didn’t have a permit for Virginia. Usually we have to wait for the driver to show up before we get to see what surprise is in store for our ride, but not this time: The surprise preceded the arrival. As I followed the Lyft GPS app I noticed that our driver, Daisy, had taken two wrong turns. I tried to call and text her but she did not respond so I ran up the the end of the street and flagged her down when she was close enough. I thought that her being 20 minutes late would be the big surprise but I was in for a treat.
First of all, she never got out of the car to offer to help us with our luggage - she looked to be in her 50s and was wiry and very thin (too thin) and was wearing yoga pants and might have been strong - but we’ll never know. When I opened her trunk it was FILLED with fishing equipment and a huge first aid kit. She had to be asked to move it - which she did while muttering under her breath about her life-saving efforts with the first aid supplies - but she made no attempt to help with the luggage. I had to manhandle all our luggage to get the two larger bags in the trunk and the two little carryons in the front seat, since there was no room for them in the back due to the two bags of garbage and Daisy’s purse. This was a 2007 Nissan-something that did not have a functioning AC and it was a hot day. At several points in the trip she was unsure as to where she was going and despite our attempts to guide her she made mistakes, like getting off on the wrong arm of a roundabout instead of getting onto the highway. We both thought she was going to drive into the woods and shoot or otherwise maim us. We finally made it to the airport and we leaped out of the car, reminded her to open the trunk (she would have driven away with it!), grabbed the luggage and dashed into the terminal. We needed to distance ourselves from Daisy and to finally get some cool air. We were both thinking, if this is just the start of the trip, what else do we have to look forward to?
After all the machinations involved with getting through security, we repaired to a lounge for a glass of wine while we waited for our flight to be called. We had booked a non-stop flight from Dulles to Oklahoma City, thus avoiding the problems that can develop with transfers in another hub. Our plane was a small one but quite comfortable - and they even served a meal, which is almost unheard of in the world of United Airlines. We lucked out with the weather and there were no tornadoes in our flight path, just some manageable turbulence, and we were soon in the Sooner State ready for out next adventure.
To be continued: Cindy and Wm
No comments:
Post a Comment