It’s just after 5am and I’m in the kitchen making sandwiches to take with me and having breakfast. For the so maniest time I’m asking myself: are you sure you want to go? Wouldn’t it be way more comfortable and easy to just stay home? The nice thing is that the answer to both questions is yes. Yes, it would be easier to just stay home, but also yes I want to go traveling and have an adventure. I check the last things and go outside to get the bus to the train station. The bus is a bit delayed, but fortunately I catch my train just in time. On my way to the airport I happen to meet a familiar conductor. I think I also met him on my way to the airport last year. We start talking and the time flies by. I’m thankful for this welcome distraction from all my thoughts wondering if I didn’t forget anything.
I notice how I’m getting more peaceful while in the train and arriving at the airport. It’s nice how some things go almost on automatic pilot, because I’ve done it so many times. Going through security and customs goes smooth as always and not much later I’m sitting down at the Starbucks at the airport to write this first post and to do a bit of last work. I still want to keep my streak on the 10.000 steps a day challenge, which means that I’ll have to walk quite a bit at the airport. Fortunately it’s still a few hours before departure, so I’ve got plenty of time. My mom calls and later a friend as well and time flies by.
It’s half a day later and I’m in Salt Lake City now. I worked a bit during the flight, had some shut eye time and watched a few series. I remember how I used to be excited about flying, but now it just feels long. I am thankful though, because there is WiFi for almost the entire flight. Staying connected with family and friends surely makes such a long flight more enjoyable. Turning a flying day into a workday also gives me a better feeling about how I spend the time in the sky.
I was a bit worried about having enough time to go through customs and get the connecting flight, but as usual the worrying was not necessary. When I arrive at the airport I’m surprised that there is barely a line for customs at all. That’s quite different than I’ve experienced from previous travels. Within a few minutes I’m at the counter and the only question I’m being asked is how long I’m staying. I walk around at the familiar airport for a while. I’ve been here several times before for a lay-over. Salt Lake City is a nice spacious airport with views of the mountains and also good WiFi. When I sit down at the gate I see that my connecting flight is delayed by about 1,5 hours. So even if customs wasn’t so fast, I would still have plenty of time to catch the next flight. I don’t like that I’ll arrive later than planned, but by this point I don’t care too much about that anymore. Now that I’ve landed in America and am through customs, I feel like I can relax. The vacation has started.
