Our January 2007 Trip

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I am very tired. We had a crazy last several days and today is the first day to even really have the opportunity to recover.

On Friday morning we left for a trip to Janesville, WI, east of Madison. We flew in to Milwaukee’s Int. airport from Atlanta. Going through security was my biggest advanced hate, and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, no doubt, but it was against my whole being to have to take off my boots and put them in a plastic bin and send them down the row to be scanned, and also all my carry-on bags, and taking out anything that was supposed to go into a zip-lock bag (liquid, cream sorts of things, 3 oz. or less only) and also take out my camera and laptop and plop them into bins and send them and all the previous down the line to be scanned.

In the old days, last time I ever flew on an airline, in the 90’s, things were quite much more simple, put your stuff on the moving belt to be scanned and you walk through the thingie and pick up your bags and move on.

Well, this time, it was my first post-911 flight, and walking through the thingie was no big deal, just doing it sans shoes was annoying to me, and then having to wait while those in front of you were putting all their things back together before you could move ahead and start gathering up your own possessions.

We were travelling as a family, so it problably made it easier on us, in some ways, but also harder. I mean, just normal scrutiny, but major hassle, talking here about two adults, and three children, all the stuff 5 people tote around.

We only checked one bag, so everything else was ‘carry-on’ — and taking it apart as “they” make you, it was a huge stream of stuff coming out of the scanner ever so sloooo-wwww-ly and the people behind us moved through the thingie faster than our stuff, so bog up … that was that.

We were on a smaller jet, Delta, and the flight was alright, overcast skies the whole way. Landing was rough, and though I haven’t flown much in my lifetime, it’s been enough to know that I’ve never had such a rough landing. DH flies a lot, and he says the same thing about that landing. Seems possible from how it felt, and a few things I side-heard from the flight people as I walked by, that maybe it was a rear tire that blew. It was alright, just really rough and noisy –crazy.

We were in WI due to DH’s work, a “late Christmas party” of sorts. We went to dinner with a few people from work that night, and then on Saturday we were on our own for the day. We drove to Madison and did some shopping. While there it began to snow, and got colder. There was no snow on the ground when we arrived. The snow didn’t hit Janesville until much later. That night we met with the work people and got on a chartered bus to go to Medieval Times in IL.

That was a great time for the children. We’d not ever been there before, but we did get a new one in the Atlanta area recently and have been interested in going. I’d also wanted to go to one before now, before we had children and since, but we just never did it.

So then, we got seats middle on the end, first row. Excellent seats, it wasn’t planned that WE’D have those seats, but it just so happened that those seats were what were handed to us as we went through our special group line when arriving.

Dinner was good. The show was nice. We had the Blue Knight assigned to our section, and he did good, but then was ‘killed’ later. But before that, he did throw flowers to the crowd a few times, and I tried to get my daughter, 8-yrs, to put her hands up asking for one … she was reticent at first, then the second time she was more vibrant about it, and he ‘whispered’ to us “I have something special for you later” … 🙂

So eventually it came to the time where he presented a special ribbon to the “Queen … of Beauty … ” and it was my dear little daughter. Made our night.

There were official pictures taken of that event, and of course we were privy to being able to buy a composite special photo in a folder. I’ll scan it later for another post, or page.

I have photos from my camera of the show, but I haven’t downloaded them from my camera yet, so I’m not sure how well most of them turned out.

On Sunday we were worn out and didn’t feel so good overall, all of us, so we later got into our rental car and drove around Janesville, at my request, looking for the older houses of the area. We found them easily, and they do have a nice variety of older houses, well kept up too.

It snowed more that afternoon/night and was nice, not too much. Monday morning we got ready and finally left for the airport to come home. Our flight was scheduled for about 4:30pm Central, and that was just before sunset. Going through security this time wasn’t as intensive, smaller airport, only one line, but not many people. (Atlanta had many lines open and tons of people in all lines with people waiting to get into line as well.) We still had to do all the “things” but it was less pressure. (Though I still disliked it just as much!)

We were on a larger jet this time. Beforehand we ate at the Gen. Mitchell Cafe … an airport restaurant there in Gen. Mitchell Int. Airport, Milwaukee … , it was the best meal “out” that I’ve had in ages. I had a bowl of cheddar cheese soup (fantastic) and an entree that was a brat and a knock (worst) with German Potato Salad. Wow it was all great. My 10-yr-old boy had his first Patty Melt there, and loved it, but I must say, it looked nicer than anything from any “normal place” you could find one on the menu. My other two children shared a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, and it was also good, big meatballs, not huge, very tasty they said and they enjoyed it greatly. Now then, my hubby, he had … I don’t remember. Well I do recall he started with a ‘green salad’ and that was a beauty. It’s what you DO NOT find in any chain restaurant, and something I’ve rarely seen anywhere. (I have one experience of a fantastic salad from a restaurant north of Atlanta metro nearly several years ago. We don’t try many “small” establishments, mostly going with (not my favorite thing) chain restaurants.)

So filled very happily we set off to go through security from there, and then on to find our gate. We were able to switch our seats around after boarding, and all had seats right behind the wing on the right side of the plane, V. in her own seat by the window, then R. in his own seat by the window, then A. in his own seat by the window, then My hubby and me behind, with me by the window.

It was overcast the whole trip from Milwaukee to Atlanta. Landing was smooth as butter. Getting off the plane into the terminal began the nightmare of a clogged up airport, people, people, people, ugh. It wasn’t fun getting through to the doors, to collect our one checked bag, and then traverse the parking area to find our vehicle, which wasn’t exactly where DH thought it was.

Finally we arrived home. Home, Home, Home. Where my lovely kitties live, whom I missed greatly while we were away. It’s a lovely thing to have kitties again, when you didn’t have even one from Friday morning to Monday Night.

Tuesday we ended up having to go out to grocery shop (knowing it worth the pain of doing so right away, rather than waiting with little food in the house, resting but knowing we HAVE to go out sooner than later … so it was a pull ourselves up by bootstraps time, get into the vehicle and drive … again.)

So today is recoupe time. We have laundry to do, and cleanup that we didn’t do before leaving, and more. But also, rest, rest, rest.




2 responses to “Our January 2007 Trip”

  1. Becky Johnson Avatar
    Becky Johnson

    Hey sis,
    We lived in Salem,WI, just down the road from Janesville. I wish you guys would have visited us when we lived there. I liked having snow for winter there, but I hated it when I had to drive to work in it, so I’d rather not have to deal with it. It has been snowing here in WA recently, we still have some on the ground from the last one about 3 days ago. It is our third winter storm I believe, although I may have lost count.

  2. Maisy Avatar

    Becky, I couldn’t recall exactly where y’all lived in WI and WHEN that was, but I did think of it (and y’all) while we were there.

    I’m sorry we never did connect via a visit to your place. Things have just gone against that usually … and this trip to WI last week was only due to work, and we used to go to Chicago/Waukeegan area with DH’s prior work, but when that was the case, you didn’t live there in WI anymore, I do recall. FWIW

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