AK day 1

   Today started wa-hay-hay-hay earlier than I would have liked it to. I ended up crawling into bed at about midnight last night and woke up every 45 minutes until my alarm went off because I just knew I was going to somehow manage to miss my 7:00am flight to Seattle. I woke up at 1:15 literally convinced it was time to get up and that I had slept through my alarm. It took myself a good thirty seconds or so to finally comprehend I’d only been asleep for a little over an hour. Brains are weird! The dreaded alarm sounded at 4:45 and I immediately felt this overwhelming sense of anxiety. I really really don’t like flying. I don’t know why. It’s not like I am an inexperienced air-traveler because I’ve gone on fairly long voyages each year for the past three years or so. I think I’ve narrowed it down to two things: take-off and landing. Take-off gives me the willies because there’s always that sense of “cross your fingers everything works properly as we ascend at a ridiculous speed to a ridiculous height!” I find myself literally crossing my fingers. Landing is the pits because I feel like landing gear is so sketchy – is it going to come out of its little hidey-hole on time? Is the tire going to explode upon impact? Is the run-way covered in a slippery substance? These things you just don’t know…until it’s happening and there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s kind of my new outlook on flying: if you’re already in the plane, buckled in and vulnerable, there’s simply not that much you can do to avoid a hairy situation.

   This trip was particularly scary for me because it’s the first time I’ve ever had to travel completely solo. I usually have Garrett there guiding me through bustling terminals while I hang out in la-la land observing my fellow travelers. This time it was all me. No one to say “that gate is only a five minute walk away” or “we have time to grab a snack before we board”. Nope. Just my own judgment and I today.

   Bozeman to Seattle was fine, minus the hour-long tarmac sesh at 7:30am. And poor me without any coffee! I had too many items to juggle and didn’t want to do the whole sorry-I-just-spilled-half-my-hot-beverage-on-you-as-I-shimmy-down-the-aisle song and dance. The plane was emp-ty which was very strange. Nice for a long-legged lassie such as myself, however! The ride was fairly turbulent and I definitely had to talk myself through it but I survived. My gate for my connecting flight to Anchorage was literally on the opposite side of the airport which was exactly what I was afraid of. Luckily I had more time to get there than I had anticipated and grabbed a coffee en route. Up through the food court, down two flights of escalators, onto the airport tram/train?, up another escalator or two, down the looong walkway, round the never-ending corner, and voila! I arrived in one piece and only managed to scald three of my fingers with my coffee.

   I managed to board and get situated on the crowded plane despite the realization that I’d be spending the next three hours and eighteen minutes of my life sardined between a middle-aged man with not-so-pleasant breath and a larger African American woman that really enjoyed utilizing our mutual armrest to its fullest. It turned out fine, though, and they were both great company. They didn’t even think I was that strange when I clenched my eyes shut during both take-off and landing. Another hour sitting on the tarmac (sigh) and we were off!

   Landed in Anchorage and thank goodness I remembered the layout of the airport from my trip last summer otherwise it could’ve been messy. Down to baggage claim, out to the taxi platform, into the taxi, 15 minute ride to the hotel, pay the taxi driver, check-in at the front desk, up to the 11^th floor, and then this:

   Ahhh, this won’t be so bad. I’ll be in the tub for the next three hours if you need me.