Roanoke Re-Cap

Mine and Gina's trip to visit Meghan in Roanoke, VA...the Reader's Digest version =)

*Wednesday
-drove to Jackson, MS to crash on Gina's couch...caught up with the fam in Ruston,LA for a bit on the way
-dinner at a really good Mexican restaurant and saw Eudora Welty's house (made my day!)
-chatted with Gina for a bit, then hit the sack in her super cool apartment (love it!)

*Thursday
-Gina's very kind friend picked us up, followed us to Gina's office to drop off her car and took us to the Jackson airport
-....and then the fun began....our plane was delayed 3 hours, so we would miss our connecting flight to Greensboro (no other flights going to Greensboro that night).
-changed destinations to Roanoke....incredibly nice airport girl changed our tags manually to make sure our luggage made it with us since we changed destinations...she and the other girl working in Jackson were the BEST airline workers we encountered the entire trip
-our plane loaded at the same time as another plane, so we switched gates 20 mins before loading...yahoo
-make it to Atlanta (if I can avoid passing through this airport again, I will at all costs)....flight delayed until 11:29.
-ate at Atlanta Bread...the bright spot in the darkness that is the Atlanta airport
-plane left around 11:30...in Roanoke around 1 am to meet Meghan!!! yay!!!
-hit the hay at Meghan's!

*Friday
-lunch at Olive Garden...yum!
-talking in 3rd person....funny...for a while, but always as long as it's intermittently.
-learned about a festival downtown that sounded like STD promotion...but it wasn't....exercise, people.
-chicken and waffles. chicken on waffles? good separately....and together? dunno
-checked out the Roanoke Star...made it on "Star Cam"....if you were watching...you saw us!
-pictures at the scenic overlook point....rain here and there.
-did a little shopping while the rain passed....crashed for a while at barnes and noble
-went to the arboretum....so pretty!
-can't forget furniture shopping....the leather bachelor couch with cup-holders and and storage bin included was decided as the perfect choice for Meghan's living room...we took pictures with this glorious couch and camped out on it for a bit...decided it might crowd the space and moved on (walking in the door and immediately sitting on the couch is no biggie, right? no walking required. you're right...it is.) but Meghan did get patio furniture...success!
-tried to take some group pics at the arboretum...haha....while keeping the bride out of the background and trying to stay out of the background of her pictures
-ate dinner (with interesting company) at a hibachi (spelling?) place...boo soup, yay chicken
-walgreens for a hairbrush, batteries, and coconut m&m's (those weren't on the original list...last minute add)
-stop at sonic where the mean lady informed us they did not make white coconut pineapple slushes...apparently they are only available with sugar-or that's what I made of her comment...coke, peach tea (on the 2nd try), and dr pepper it is.
-modern Shakespeare night at Meghan's! She's the Man and 10 Things I Hate About You....3-4 hours of laughter followed.
-sleep

*Saturday
-met Meghan's friend to pick up patio furniture from the store...need truckish assistance and manual assistance....her friends were nice!
-off to lunch at the glorious McAlister's (favorite!)...Meghan got a 3 dollar thing from a nice person at the next table
-off to downtown to see if we can find the festival....I can't think of the real name, but I will leave you with "Cyclydia"....you can see why our minds went where they did, right? Cyclovia, maybe? whatever, different word same/similar picture.
-parked in a parking lot where you paid on the honor system....we paid...honorably, but I think we owed a little when we left....honestly? Whatever, chances are every other car in the lot didn't drop a dime in the pay thing.
-walked around the downtown area with the saturday festival (not the STD one) and hunted for the peach festival...never found it, but we did find a bedazzled van....yes, you read right....a bedazzled van with the license plate "BDAZLD"
-checked out several really cool shops....and Chocolate Paper....wonderful place with hilariously inappropriate magnets and lots of chocolate =)
-drove around a bit more....by a really cool looking art museum and checked out Meghan's church....so cool!
-headed back to the apt to hang out for a bit and break in the patio furniture
-out to eat in the "artsy" part to a yummy little Italian restaurant followed by ice cream at the Ice Cream and Soda Shop (Kilgore needs one....no, really...contact the Kilgore Chamber of Commerce about this need in the community)
-went to a video rental place where they want 2 phone numbers to join....prestigious? exclusive? wary? un-trusting? Whatever. If you don't turn it in on time they call your mom...for real.
-hit up Sonic again, but didn't bother with asking about the slushes...just the typical softies.
-back to the apt to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic....so much funnier than I ever imagined! watched the dance scene twice. lots of laughter. mocked the dance scene...more laughter.

*Sunday
-up early, but not to my alarm...Blackberry, why do you not automatically change when the time zone you are in changes?
-pack up and in the car to head to Greensboro, NC to fly to Atlanta...sounds easy, but it wasn't.
-freaked out by an airline worker....tried to switch our flights around....told us we would stay in atlanta that night and leave monday around 12 or 1 or stay in Greensboro and leave for atlanta at 7:15 am then leave atlanta around 12 or 1...she expected us to miss our connection in atlanta
-sit on the front porch....yes, really...on white rocking chairs...in the airport....pleasant.
-talked to another airline worker...put on stand-by for a flight leaving atlanta later...why didn't the first lady do that?
-get on the *delayed* plane to atlanta uncertain of what the heck would happen next
-land in atlanta and watch our connecting flight leave for jackson as we were sitting in our current plane (how did that one manage to leave "on time"?)....never had "just out of reach" or "so close, yet so far" apply more in life
-talk to mean airline workers in atlanta....sit with the masses...listen to weird conversations....eat a cold 8 dollar sandwich in the terminal in hopes of our name being called for the magic list of those making the flight
-around 4 hours later, we are sitting...watching the 5:11 flight we aren't even officially on get delayed to 6 something then 7 then 8:40 then 9:14.
-make snap decision to run to gate of next flight at 8:10...flights leaves at 8:30....we are in D35, flight leaves from E8-trains, escalators, asking where the heck E even is were all involved... (really, it was more like a sprint....someone actually just stopped in their tracks to let us pass)...that was fun, real fun-except for the running up and down moving escalators part, wait-that part too.
-make it to the gate as the last group is loading and ask if we can be put on stand-by for it....wait a bit....we are on!
-the plane was freezing, but it was in the air on the way to jackson....success! only 5 or 6 hours spent in atlanta...compared to most this weekend, that was a success
-land in jackson around 10 pm (the eastern/central time difference is lost on me here)....yes!...check the status of the one we had been waiting on all day...it was awaiting take-off in atlanta (pushed to 9:36 take-off)-delayed due to maintenance on the aircraft...kinda glad I wasn't on that one. made me want to call the lady in Greensboro and let her know she was ridiculous and her plan sucked and we figured something our for ourselves and stick my tongue out at her over the phone.
-check-list:us-check, purses-check, carry-on bags-check, someone headed to pick us up-check, luggage on the belt-un-check.
-informed our luggage was still in atlanta, so made a quick trip to pick up the essentials then home to sleep

*Monday
-wake up....try to turn on TV, but doesn't work
-sit for a bit to wait it out and read magazines....decide to check the box.
-discover a huge branch in the middle of what's left of Gina's deck.
-call landlord to find out there was a live powerline down and the gas grill was leaking gas....my car was too close to this scene for comfort....maybe 30 feet (if that)
-get lunch to bask in an electrically powered setting....get magic luggage call while at lunch
-run to meet van and get luggage....work trucks and downed powerline were moved so I could get out.
-4.5 hours later I'm home

lessons learned:
*the atlanta airport is the root of all evil....or maybe just the root of lots of flight delays
*Roanoke is really pretty
*hanging out with new and old friends makes all the travel drama worth it
*airport employees are scarier than the airport itself in most cases
*a new show should be made called "the airport zone"....where one minute equals 7, so an airport hour is 420 minutes...I'm sure most of America could relate
*somebody else's couch can feel like home after a stressful time in an airport where your fate is undetermined.

everyone should do this in public once: