Peace Hill Press Weekend ~ Day 1

I booked the ‘perfect’ schedule. My flight didn’t leave from Portland until almost 11 am, which meant that I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn. Russ decided to pack up the kids, drive me to the airport, and make a day out of it. We left the house a little after 7:30. It takes us about an hour and a half to get to the airport. It was 49 degrees and raining.

I told the kids to look sad as I was leaving. Lola was the only one who was sad, and only because she wanted to get down and run around. (Russ then left and took the kids to IKEA and OMSI, because he’s awesome like that. They had a great day hanging out in Portland.)

Many of the flights to Virginia were LONG. I didn’t want a long travel day. So I found a travel itinerary of only seven hours, which had a one hour layover in Chicago. I think that was my first mistake. But I was thrilled that I would be getting in at 9 pm (Eastern time) rather than midnight like the other flights. And I would be able to meet up with Jessica for the second leg of our flight. Her sister planned on picking us up at the airport in Richmond. (Very handy that she had a sister close by!)

The flight arrived in Chicago on schedule. But I had a bit of walking to do to get to the correct gate, and Jessica’s flight was a little late. I had a few extra minutes to grab a bite to eat, but I decided to wait for Jessica. Then the flight started to board. They made me check my carry-on bag, which was annoying. I packed light so that I wouldn’t have to check bags. Jessica managed to get on at the last minute. She had to run to make the flight on time, and her heart was pounding like crazy. We introduced ourselves (we had never met!), and then we waited. And waited.

The flight crew was late. Really late. And then the thunder and lightning began. And the rain. The crew finally arrived. But we were grounded because of the lightning storm. For FIVE HOURS. We sat on that stupid airplane at the gate for FIVE HOURS. After a couple hours, the attendants offered passengers small glasses of water and little bags of pretzels. They told us we could get off—but we wouldn’t be able to re-board the flight. Then they had to refuel. Then a maintenance crew had to check over the plane to make sure it wasn’t damaged by the hail. Then they had to wait for a new flight crew.

We finally left Chicago. I’ve never been more happy to be in a moving plane. It was a two hour flight to Richmond, so no food was available. We were starving by the time we landed. And it was around 2 o’clock in the morning. We had to go to baggage claim to get our carry-ons. Jessica’s sister was a saint. She had packed us a bunch of yummy food to eat on our way to the Bed and Breakfast. (Thank you, Janel!!) I think it was close to 3 am before we arrived and fell into our beds. So much for early arrival plans…

ETA: I completely forgot to mention the fantastic lightning storm that entertained us on the dark drive to the B&B in the early morning hours. I LOVE lightning storms—as long as they aren’t holding up my flight!