The long journey

I'm writing from gate B37 of Washington Dulles Airport in DC.  My journey by leaving the house at 6AM (-ish) to drive to O'Hare for my 8:50AM CDT flight this morning (thanks for getting me to the airport, Levon!)  I arrived here before noon EDT and took the shuttle to my current gate.  Got some lunch.  And now I wait... until my next flight at 5:40pm.

When I booked this flight, I wasn't thrilled about the long layover here but the next flight out of O'Hare wouldn't get me here until an hour before my connecting flight.  Knowing the awful on-time rate at O'Hare, I couldn't chance it. 

But as the day got closer, I began to look forward to this layover.  It's funny, I know.  But I know Jill understands.  When she last flew, she said her favorite part of flying is waiting in the airport with a cup of coffee and the newspaper.

At the time I thought, "Ok..."  But now I get it.  There's nothing I HAVE to do here.  The terminal is surprisingly quiet and I have all this free time with no responsibilities.  No one needs anything from me.  So I can just sit, relax, and read whatever I want to. 

It's a sad commentary of our busy, scheduled lives isn't?  There must be a way to have this time at home, right?  Hmm...


For those who have been asking about itinerary:

Our flight out of DC is at 5:40pm this evening with an hour layover in Dakar, Senegal where we don't have to exit the plane.  We then travel on to Johannesburg, South Africa and arrive at 5:20pm local time (which is 7 hours a head of Chicago time.) The next flight is approximately two hours later so we'll arrive in Harare, Zimbabwe at about 9:40pm on Wednesday.  We'll stay over night at the Holiday Inn before beginning our drive to Mutare on Thursday morning.

So there's the schedule for the next couple of days.  Now back to waiting with anticipation (and my book!)