In Transit

Today has been an adventure, to say the least. This is the first step on our trail. So much swirling around me emotionally, but I am putting some of it off just for the fact that I have to get through airports and handle having Lucky with me without Damon, for the most part.

Damon's mom, Diana, drove us to the airport today after hosting us for evening, running a few errands on the way. Once we said our goodbyes and had our last hugs, we headed in.

Going into traveling today, I knew that my first flight had been delayed. I was getting updates throughout the day. When we got to the ticketing counter, I found out that they had changed me to a direct flight, as the delay was going to make me late for my second leg. I was really fine with that, though it meant that I had to hang out an hour at the gate. It was an okay trade off.

I learned that they no longer provide big plastic bags or wrapping for bags. Yep. That's my fault. I could have added calling and checking on that to my to dos over the past few days. We did buy some stroller covers, which weren't cheap but not exorbitant either. Once we got all the bags ready to go, we headed to security.

Security was an adventure. We got up there and Damon realized he had left his knife in his pocket. Yep. So I had him throw it in my toss away carry on, since I needed to carry my lithium battery items as well as some dog food for the next few days that wasn't already sealed up. Then we start in the process of getting scanned. Damon went through fine, but we got to be special. Lucky and I got to go through the metal detector, rather than the body scans.

Bring on the first challenge: staying. I really didn't know if he was going to behave or not, but he did wonderfully, waiting for me to call him through. But, due to all of the metal on his harness, leash, and collar, he set off the metal detector. The poor TSA guy didn't know what to do with us. He thought Lucky would need a patdown (because the dog is totally harboring a knife and a gun in his harness). No patdown for the dog, though we had to take off all of his stuff (collar included) and go back through, again having him stay while I went through first. And he did wonderfully again. I was so proud of. him. His recall was the best it has ever been, which was what was needed in that moment.

Once we finally had permission to leave the metal detector and we were suited back up, I got to have both of my bags checked over, since they looked suspicious. The guy checking it didn't say anything about the knife, though he was shocked at the dehydrated dog food. I don't understand things sometimes. Both bags had to be checked for drugs, since they seemed sketchy. Don't know why. Such is life.

Once we got everything back together, we headed to our gates. Damon left as his flight was sooner than mine. Both Lucky and I used the facilities, and then we went to find our gate. We were at the very end of the concourse, where there are multiple gates in a small area. We found a corner and camped out, though every time I went to get something out of my carry on, Lucky wanted it to be so I would feed him. We met a couple of different people, and then we took advantage of pre boarding to get the second to the last bulkhead seat. I was probably a little on the assertive side to get on board, but I really wasn't going to get a seat that didn't have space for Lucky.

I ended up sitting next to a lovely older woman who was deaf. It was fun to use my sign, as well as help out. We had a wonderful woman sit between us, which was a gift, because she was fine with him taking up her leg room.

Once we were able to take off, Lucky's ears took some time to adjust. He had flown before, but it is still difficult. After lots of rubbing, he finally settled down. He even got some wheat thins. He was a little fidgety, but we survived. Tried to not trip anyone.

Our flight left late, but we still beat Damon in. That meant we (the dog and I) were tasked with getting the bags from baggage claim. Then we waited. Lucky made a lot of people smile carrying his pack.

Once Damon found us, we headed to be picked up by a total stranger AKA trail angel. Bob has been running one of the houses here in San Diego for I don't know how long. As soon as we got in, we were availed with stories of hikers past and present, the gameplan for how he fits ten hikers into his house at one time, and all that we needed to know for our stay. He has me beat with feeding people. It was impressive. Seven hundred and fifty people in less than 30 minutes, with a vegetarian option and over three hundred pounds of potato salad. Yep. I bow to the master.

We arrived and met Millie, the house dog and queen bee, in addition to the eight other hikers that were staying the night. Peter is from back East, Amir and his hiking partner whose name is not coming to me are from Israel. Those three are headed out tomorrow morning before the butt crack of dawn. Then we have Sandy from Canada, Judith and two other women I can't remember (story of the night) from Australia and there is another person in there, but my mind is fried... We all are heading out Thursday, as well as three more that are getting picked up tomorrow.

I think we are just scratching the surface of "Holy shit, what were we thinking?" at this point. I'm just remembering one step at a time, that's how you hike the PCT.