Thoughts: The Journey is Half the Fun

The girls and I headed out yesterday to travel from Atlanta to Brooklyn for our annual kids’ music pilgrimage. The first challenge was the weather. Atlanta was very, very fortunate to have not been hit harder by the storms that rolled through. The tornadoes were north, south and east, but Atlanta was spared. No trees down or other issues came our way on the trip to the airport.

The security ID check lines were wonky. The girls and I all ended up in different lines; the security person looking at Chloe’s ID was concerned that such a young child was going through on her own. Ha! We lined up for security; thankfully, I realized soon enough that we were in a line for one of the scanners. Nope. Find another line, don’t care if I lose our place. Smooth sailing. It is a lot easier when we have only backpacks and not backpacks plus rolling bags. Traveling uber-light rocks! Camille did not have to remover her iPad from her pack.

Since Chloe and I had left from the B concourse just a couple of weeks ago, we knew how to get to the Starbucks, easy-peasy. BUT, I handed the lady my travel mug to fill, hoping to save a cup. Nope. She filled a paper one and then poured the coffee into my cup and then tossed the paper one. Not the point.

The girls ate their shared fruit and bagel, then we pushed our way onto the plane. Seriously. We had to “get our New York on” even before leaving the Atlanta airport! We settled in; the pilot told us to expect a bumpy ride. In the end, it wasn’t as bumpy as dizzying. At one point, we were in a holding pattern over North Carolina — on our way to JFK from Atlanta? Then a buzz around Atlantic City. When it came time to land, we couldn’t see the ground until 10 seconds before we landed. NO visibility…

Looping over NC

Tight circle over Atlantic City

As our flight took longer than expected, I was happy to have bought the Gogo, since I was able to catch up on a bunch of things. The girls tried out the tv, games and music. Chloe came across one selection worth listening to — The Verve Pipe — who we will be seeing a couple of times this weekend!

On decent choice!

We deplaned quickly and made our way over to the train. From the train, we not only saw the fog, but we also saw a taxi engulfed in flames. Horrid. We all felt terrible at seeing this and hoped that the occupants had been able to get out before the fire had ripped through it. And I have furthered my resolve to avoid taxis.

The fog!

A bit of a train ride later and we had arrived in Times Square. People everywhere. Chaos. Even more than usual — rehearsals for the “TLC Royal Wedding Viewing Event” were under way. After a bit, a soft pretzel was in order. Is it just me, or have these things turned horrid since I was a kid? I swear, they used to be good.

Time for a pretzel