Tuesday morning the 26th we were up at 2:30 am so we could catch the hotel shuttle for the 15 minute ride to the airport. Our flight departure was at 5:15 am so we were trying to get there at least an hour before the flight. I had only been on a plane in this airport as a stopover so neither of us knew how really small it is.
When we arrived at the airport at 3:45 am it was closed. We could get in to the public area but security and the gates were closed! We had the option of taking the later shuttle at 4:30 am and arriving at 4:45 am which would have been more than adequate time. The distance from the airport entrance to the gate is maybe 150 feet! We could literally see the airport entrance from our gate. We could have arrived at 5 am for our flight at 5:15 am.
The flight left on time and we arrived in Houston TX a little after 6 am. Our flight to Indianapolis IN was at 7:29 am so we had over an hour to get to the gate. The Houston airport is much bigger than Brownsville airport. We needed to take the shuttle train between terminals but we still made it with more than a half hour before the flight. With the spare time we had I went and got coffee and a cookie for the flight.
Both of our flights today were on the dreaded (for me anyway) RJ (Regional Jets) planes. I am very claustrophobic so I really am very much on edge in these tight planes. I always try to get a seat as near the front as possible. The RJ out of Brownsville was the smaller of the RJs with the 1x2 seating. From the back of this plane you can’t even see the front due to the people taking up all of the space. I managed to get us in the first 2 seats on this plane and I was still just a little panicky, especially if the plane stops moving. The plane from Houston to Indianapolis was the larger RJ with a first class section and 2x2 seating. I am fine a plane this size. On our return flight after Christmas we are on the small RJ for 2.5 hours all of the way from Indianapolis to Houston. We are again in the first 2 seats on the plane and I have 33 days until then; just not going to think about it!
We left about 10 minutes late from Houston because the plane needed fuel. One would think that they would have taken care of that before it was time to leave, but what do I know. However, we did arrive just a couple of minutes late in Indianapolis which was OK by us as were done flying for the day. Now were getting a rental car for the next 33 days and driving to Buffalo for the first leg of the trip.
We got the rental car and started out on the 500 mile trip to Buffalo. We decided that we would drive until either the weather turned bad or it starts to get dark. We were hoping for 300 miles before we stopped for the night and that’s what we got. As we traveled further north east past Columbus OH it started snowing pretty good. By the time we got to the Dayton area it was getting dark at 4:30 pm with a decent amount of snow and the temperature was below freezing. It was officially time to get off the road! We had also just hit the 300 mile mark leaving us just 200 miles Wednesday. We still were not sure what the weather would be like going into Buffalo tomorrow so now with just 200 miles to go we could take our time traveling.
We got up and were ready to start out around 10 am on Wednesday the 27th. We went across the street to have breakfast at Bob Evans first. We also found out that the weather warning was canceled for the Buffalo area so we were going to have an easy 3 hour drive. We had breakfast and were on the road by 11 am which would put us in Cheektowaga (suburb of Buffalo) by 2 pm. We are staying at Patty’s sister and brother-in-law's house (Cheryl and Joe) for the next 10 days.
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| Our rental car at the hotel in Ohio on Wednesday Morning. Patty had already cleaned off the snow. |
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| On our walk we went through the high school Patty graduated from. |
Now, at least we feel better about stuffing ourselves later :) Cheryl and Joe, as usual, hosted the Thanksgiving meal at their house. It was a small family group of just Patty’s parents, us and Cheryl’s son Brain. All together we had 7 family members. The food was great and everyone was full just like it is supposed be on Thanksgiving. After dinner and some football we played some LRC (left, right, center dice game) and then watched an old movie, the Cone Heads. Patty and I had never seen the movie; it was good!
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| Joe carving the turkey. Their turkey is always good and they cook it on the grille outside. |
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| Patty's dad relaxing before dinner. |
OK, another Thanksgiving come and gone. By the way, it is really cold up here in Buffalo. The last 2 days it has not been above freezing. It’s really not that bad, Patty and I are just having a one month winter and then we are back to the warm south Texas weather. This is just a little break.
We don’t have any real plans while we are here. We are just going to go with the flow.
Stay tuned!
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