On Her Way

I'm at home and my time is 10:20PM EDT Sunday. Nuria is in Costa Rica and her time is 8:20PM CST. Normally, my time is one hour later than her time, but Daylight Saving Time makes my time two hours later than her time.

She will soon be on her way to the San Jose airport. It's about a ten minute drive from her house. She has to be there three hours before her flight leaves. Tonight, she will be on her way to stay with me for a while. Her flight leaves at 11:54PM Costa Rica time—1:54AM my time. Actually, 11:54PM is gate departure time. Takeoff is scheduled for 12:04AM, ten minutes later. She will fly to JFK in New York City and will land there at 6:50AM. She will arrive at the gate at 7AM. Then she will wait for her connecting flight to Richmond. That will depart JFK at 9AM and arrive at Richmond at 10:33AM Monday.

I'll leave home at 9:30AM to drive to the airport. It should be a 45 minutes drive to the airport. I'll get on I-95, heavy traffic, and drive to Richmond, where I'll take I-64 East to the airport exit, which is South Airport Drive. From there it's a matter of being in the correct lane at traffic lights and paying close attention to the road signs. I have to take the Hourly Parking ramp and avoid Daily Parking and Weekly Parking. I have to stop and get my ticket to park (from the automated parking ticket dispenser) and then drive into the first parking garage. There is usually a parking place near the far end of the garage, but if there's not I will have to enter the second parking garage.

Then I'll walk to the terminal, and go up the escalator, and walk to the waiting area where Concourse A and Concourse B come together. Then I'll sit and wait for her to appear. She will be tired after traveling all night. I don't expect to get much sleep either. We're both excited to be getting back together. 

I've been perusing a map of Richmond, hoping there was an easy way to get someplace interesting, like the New York Deli where we could get hot pastrami sandwiches. But I haven't driven in downtown Richmond in many years, and the city streets are confusing, with so many one-way streets and toll expressways. I've given up for the night. I'll brush my teeth and lie down. Nuria can call me. Even if she wakes me up, I won't mind. I just want to know she's making progress on her trip. 

So now it's 11:20PM Sunday night.

*****************************************

Five hours later:

I slept until 4:20AM. Now its 5:40AM and the flight tracker shows her flight is about to cross the North Carolina/Virginia border. There were areas of precipitation around JFK earlier but they have moved east. Now, the weather at JFK is good.

I'll see if I can squeeze in a Spanish lesson or two, but then I'll have to take my shower, dress, and get the Jeep out of the garage and pull it close to the back door. I'll come back in and maybe eat an apple or a bowl of raisin bran, though I'm not hungry. My body knows this is too early to eat breakfast. I'll wait for the sun to rise, which will be at 7:01AM today. I might apply some Windex to the windshield and wipe it with a paper towel.

I'll track her flight until it lands at JFK. She might send me a WhatsApp text when she gets into the terminal. We might have a short video chat. Her next flight (to RIC) leaves at 9AM and I don't have to leave home to get her until 9:30AM.

It's dark now, at 6AM, and the temperature is 29°F. The high today will be 50°F. It will be chilly when I meet her in Richmond, but the walk from the terminal to my car will be a short one (I hope). It normally is a short walk. Nuria will probably be hungry, although I will guess she will likely have bought a snack and a coffee at JFK. 

When I started editing this blog at 5:30AM, her flight was about to cross the North Carolina-Virginia border. Now at 6:05AM, her flight is close to JFK in New York. 

Just to put everything into perspective:

Remember, JFK is her layover stop, not her final destination. It's about 6:20AM. On the flight tracker I can see her jet is turning to the west toward JFK. 

A few minutes pass.

Now the flight tracker no longer shows the little airplane symbol. The flight is on the ground. Soon it will be at the gate and Nuria will deplane (is that the word?) and begin waiting for her 9AM flight to Richmond.

Note the map below. No little airplane. The flight landed at 6:26AM. Not bad—three minutes behind schedule. It will take probably ten minutes to get to the gate. And then the passengers will have to leave the plane. I estimate she'll require 20 minutes from landing to walk into the JFK terminal. 

I've never flow to JFK. I've flown to nearby Newark, which I recall as overcrowded. I suspect JFK is probably the same. I have no desire to fly through those large airports. 

I sent Nuria a WhatsApp text, so she'll know I'm awake and up and that I want to hear from her. The text hasn't made it to her phone yet, so I know she's still on the plane. 

I'll wait a while to see if she replies, then I'll pop into the shower and bathe. I'll get dressed. I'll get the Jeep out of the garage. I'll do some more waiting.

The time is now 6:41AM. The sun will rise in 20 minutes.