I arrived!

Well today was certainly a busy day. The good news? I arrived safely in Virginia! I will say that the whole flying standby thing was certainly an adventure. I arrived at the airport less than an hour before the flight, flying standby doesn't require the whole 2 hours before deal for normal flights. Going through security was a little bit of an adventure, because of course, at least according to the TSA, I can't follow directions. Apparently even though they have changed the rules for laptops and have ambiguous signs, it's my fault that the sign isn't more direct. Oh well, I won't make the mistake of not taking my laptop out of my bag, even though the sign says you don't have to if it's in a certain type of case, one of which I have. I must admit I haven't flown with a laptop in a really long time.

So after I got to the gate, I was told that the flight was full, as in everyone had checked in, however not everyone had claimed their seat yet. They had 10 minutes to take their seats or the standby passengers would get them, and let me say it was the longest 10 minutes of my life. I kept hoping that each person walking by wasn't getting on my flight. There were probably 5 or 6 people that came after me, and I was getting really worried. However, when I felt like I wouldn't get a chance this go around, they called my name and the name of another standby passenger to get ready. There was only one seat left and I got it! I was so incredibly relieved, as they opened the door and I pretty much ran down the ramp. I even had an aisle seat, not so much of a big deal for me, since us 5ft folks don't need much leg room.

The rest of the travel was pretty uneventful. I dosed a little, listened to some music, and watched The Rocker with Dwight from The Office. Chris was actually close by the airport when I landed, and I was pretty surprised, because I wasn't sure that he would be released so early in the day. He brought me Subway which was awesome because they only thing I had eaten all day was the chocolate cake I ate for breakfast. Yay, I know, totally unlike me, but I couldn't resist another piece.

The drive to the hotel was incredibly long. If you think traffic where you live is bad, I swear DC traffic is some of the worst. I think it took us close to 2 hours to get to Fredericksburg, where we are staying. We just hung out, Chris did a little bit of work, and then I went out and grabbed some dinner while Chris took a nap. I went to Sonic, a little adventure, but thanks to Tom Tom, I found it and a grocery store and came back in one piece. Now because of the time difference, Chris is sleeping and I'm wide awake. We have to leave here at 3:30am tomorrow to take Chris back to base and I can have his car, which is only 4 hours or so away. At least I can come back and sleep for a while.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow. I forgot the cord to transfer photos to my computer, but I'm thinking that Chris might have one that I can use so I'm going to see tomorrow. For now, enjoy some posts without photos. Stay tuned for (hopefully) daily posts on my trip to the East Coast!