I heard some time that airplanes use the most of their fuel during take off. It feels like for me that’s the same. When the days before the journey get closer, I usually get a bit nervous and it takes quite some effort to get ready. Fortunately years ago I’ve made a checklist for myself that I still use these days. It makes it a lot easier to pack everything needed.
Yesterday I went shopping with a friend for a few things I needed to bring. She reminded me that we did the same thing last year the day before my trip. I had already forgotten that, but it made me laugh. I like being consistent, even with my little quirks.
Right now I’m sitting at the Starbucks at Schiphol Airport. This morning everything went very smooth. I got up on time, cleaned up my house, took a shower, had breakfast and took the bus to the train station. The train wasn’t too busy and a few people looked at me with my big backpack. I guess they were off to work, but perhaps would also like to go on an adventure.
As I’m sitting here, looking at the planes in front of me and writing the first blog of this trip, I’m mainly thankful that I have this opportunity. With being very busy in the past months I actually doubted that I should go on a vacation, but now that I’m here at the airport, I feel that I’m getting excited to go to America again. Seeing friends, going on long roadtrips and hiking in the national parks, there is a lot to look forward to. I still haven’t mapped out the route, but I might start with that in the plane or during the first days in California.
The first flight is quite uneventful. I was planning on doing e-mail support work the whole flight, but that gets difficult since there is no internet most of the time. I know it’s a first-world problem, but quite annoying when you’ve paid for it with the expectation to have a productive workday up in the air. Delta is usually fine, but today they sadly let me down. I do some other programming work for which I don’t need internet, mainly to make sure I’ll stay focussed and awake. I don’t want to feel sluggish from watching many movies during the flight. After a couple of hours of work I decide to take a break and watch one funny movie. After that the flight is not much longer and soon we’ll land with a great view of snowcapped mountains in Utah.
Unlike last year the line for customs is quite short today and it all goes very fast. The security guy asks me what I’m gonna do and if I have brought something for my friends. When I tell him I got them Stroopwafels he laughs and tells me that he likes them as well and that I can walk through. Since it went all so fast I have a couple of hours here at the airport. When I walk in the main hall I come to the discovery that I have had a layover of a few hours here before on a previous trip. I had forgotten about that. I sit down at the same spot as last time to answer some e-mails that I had planned to send in the plane and to continue writing this first post. I notice that I’m still a bit in work mode, but the physical distance and time difference from home help to leave it a bit behind. I’m glad that I have no big projects planned for the coming time. Hopefully I only have some support and maintenance work to do, so I can actually enjoy the vacation and relax while I’m here.
After I’ve spend some time on my laptop and have helped several people with questions about their websites I have some peace of mind again. I’m gonna quickly post this story online and then walk around the airport a bit before the last flight of today, about two hours to California. Tomorrow I can pick up my rental car and I plan to have a few relaxed days with my friend in San Diego before I start with the roadtrip.
