The Big Apple (day one)

I awoke at 5:55 AM this morning. At this time, I finished a few last minute details concerning my suitcase contents. (In other words, I put my toothbrush, contact solution, pajamas, etc. into my suitcase). Along with the last additions to my suitcase, I also had to make sure that the dogs and cats had enough food and water to get them through the duration of our trip. After the car was loaded, we departed our driveway at approximately 7:14 AM.

My carry-on luggage got searched when we were checking in at the airport. It was no big deal....they just randomly selected my laptop bag to be invaded. Yeah. Invaded is a good word for that.

We made it through our first flight with no complications. Oddly enough, for the first time ever, I got kind of scared on the plane. I just had a feeling that something was going to go wrong, and that I would never see Gary again. I dunno...it was probably just the fact that I had a lot of stuff on my mind.

Yeah, it scared me (the plane ride, that is). Gary and I had parted in not-so-friendly terms last night, so I was really concerned about our relationship. I really wanted to call him, but that's just not an easy thing to do with like 100 people surrounding you, listening in on a phone conversation. So, I decided to wait until we landed in Cincinnati, so that I could type him a quick email at the airport while waiting for our next flight.

We got to Cincinnati. We were supposed to switch plans in an hour, so we snarfed down some chicken sandwiches and returned to the terminal to await our departure. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, we figured out that our second flight to Newark was cancelled. Whoopie!!!!! Apparently, there were "high winds" that would have made landing difficult. Sooooooo, we were stuck spending an extra four hours and some odd number of minutes at the airport.
I realized that I had packed my laptop's power cord in my checked luggage, so I couldn't use my laptop. I couldn't email Gary until
we got to the hotel. It was a big bummer.

Mom and I went shopping while Jason watched our coats (slept). It was during our walk that we discovered something very odd. All of the stores had souvenirs from the state of Kentucky, but none from Ohio. NOTHING said Ohio on it. Seeing as how we were in Cincinnati, we found this to be quite intriguing. Finally, I got the nerve to ask a saleslady what state we were in. Oddly enough, we were in Kentucky. I never knew that there WAS a Cincinnatti in Kentucky. Yeah. You learn something new every day.

The good part about our flight being cancelled? We got meal vouchers. Mom, Jason, and I made $21 in meal vouchers just because of our "inconvenience." So, we went to the TCBY store and got ice cream, and then to the cookie shop. We spent like $18 just in snacks. It was great.

OK, next topic.

The plane came, we got to Newark. Yay.

Our shuttle ride to (undisclosed location....I don't want no boogie man knocking at my door) was quite odd. I would almost swear that our driver was speaking German half of the time he was trying to communicate with us. Let's just say it was a VERY
VERY HARD accent to translate. His last name was Yuulikiv, as his nametag stated. I don't know where that is from...

We got to the hotel. After a few complications getting checking in, we found out that Jason would have his own separate room. This made me happy. I realized that I was very very very tired. So, I opened my suitcase and discovered that it had been searched by the airline as well. I guess that I just have suspicious looking luggage or something. Oh well.

I talked to Gary.

I went to sleep.

End of day one.