The alarm went off at 6:45 this morning. We hopped (me) and dropped (EK) out of bed, fumbling for clothes and to shove the rest of our things into suitcases, hoping desperately that everything had been distributed appropriately, and that nothing would be over the weight limit. We stripped the beds, gathered everything together, and loaded up the Prius for our final drive. I was a little bit sad to be ending the trip, but at the same time, incredibly excited to be heading home again.
After a little fiasco with me attempting to find a coffee shop I couldn't seem to find, and the propensity for all of Glenwood Springs' left turn lights to refuse to operate, we were on I-70 by 7:40. It was a little later than we had anticipated, so the stress was running a little high for me, and we didn't have time to stop for breakfast. The scenery was at least, still incredibly gorgeous, even if I was a little too stressed to enjoy it. Traffic was at least cooperative, and we managed to make it to Denver early enough to refuel the Prius, and turn that sucker in to Enterprise. With their help, we had found a limo service that also offered cars to shuttle people around. A little pricier than the shuttle we used before (I think), but still far cheaper than a taxi. Our ride showed up right on time, in an Escalade (I snorted, but hey, whatever), and we loaded up and headed out. Our driver was a pretty cool fellow, and the drive to the Denver airport seemed to take no time at all. We had a slight hiccup when we got there, as apparently they only take cash for payment, and the credit card that EK thought they were putting it on was only for the purpose of reserving the car in the first place. She dashed inside for an ATM and we had a nice awkward moment waiting for her to return.
Once that was all settled, we headed inside to the kiosk to print out our boarding passes and check our bags (I had the foresight to prepay the night before), and we were excessively pleased to learn that our compulsive packing had paid off, and that my suitcase weighed in at a svelte 45lbs, and EK's at 41lbs. Relieved, we headed down to security, where we had our first experience with one of those full body scanners, and I had the fun job of making sure that the massive amount of crap in my pockets got out my pockets, lest I be patted down.
Thoroughly irradiated, we made it through without incident, and made it down to our terminal, where we hit up an Einstein Bros. for breakfast/lunch. We found our gate, shoveled food into our mouths, and sat down to wait for our flight for just over an hour.
The flight itself was pretty great. I am still convinced that I will never tire of the feeling of accelerating to take off, or the momentary weightlessness as we level off or start the descent, and I don't ever want to get tired of it, either. Our captain was pretty awesome as well; before we boarded, he came out and introduced himself. We got an amusing lecture on the three rules of making our plane load faster (hint: it starts with "Don't" and ends with "block the aisle"), then actually managed to board the plane in a timely fashion! We made pretty good time, and we flew into Hartsfield about 8 minutes earlier than we were scheduled to. Unfortunately, this left us waiting on the tarmac for a good 15 minutes or so, while our pilot intoned that if we enjoyed our flight, his name was Richard and this was Delta, and if we didn't enjoy our flight, his name was Steven, and this was Airtran.
EK's dad was waiting at baggage claim to grab us, and without too much trouble we found the van, he jimmied the back door open, and we were off. Right up until we got to the exit for the airport garage, where we got nice and backed up in traffic. Despite that, and the ancient van's terrifyingly huge turning radius, we eventually made it out, popped through a Chick-fil-A drive through, and made it back to Duluth and EK's car without doom or death. We even managed to get in and out of her parents' without too much delay.
316 was cooperative as well, and we got back to Athens around 8:30 or so. It took another 10 minutes to do the suitcase shuffle and make sure that I had all of my clothes out of EK's suitcase, and that she had all of her books that had been shoved into mine, but I sent her off with a thank you and a hug, and finally was home.
Partially, I wanted to chronicle the very last day of our trip. Mostly, I wanted to chronicle my thoughts on the whole thing. This has been...incredible. It's definitely not been without it's stress as well. I worked myself to exhaustion in the very real sense so that I could afford to do this trip in the first place. The driving was stressful, more so because I am a complete loon, and did it all myself (this I have no one to blame for except myself). Occasionally the hostels were stressful, or our plans to stay with someone fell through. It was hot, it was cold, it was so much walking and hiking and "where do we go to dinner, what do you want to do, should we stop." But I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I have always wanted to travel. It feels like some part of me is always wanting to be somewhere else and do something new, even though I am an awful homebody, and it's hard for me to break out of my set patterns. This trip felt freeing in so many different ways. I feel like I can't use, "I don't have money" anymore, because I don't have very much money, but if I'm given a chance to plan and a little financial guidance, I really can make it happen. To an extent, I feel like there's nothing that I can't do now. I've seen a lot, but there is still so much out there that I haven't had a chance to see or experience. I still haven't been out of the country...maybe one of the cruises that KCN's been talking about. I feel like there's more to this, somehow, as though this is somehow significant and important and a Thing. To me it is, to others, maybe not. It hasn't really changed my life, or changed the world. It's changed my outlook, though. I feel different even as I come home and feel safe and secured and the same.
Day 15:
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