Winter (HAHAHAHAHA!!!) Part kolu

Previously on "Denise and Don's Big Adventure - Winter"... Just kidding!! Don't be scared. I'm not going to recap, except to say we were in pouring rain, our awning plastered to the side of the motorhome, and the laundry stranded in the trunk of our rental car. A few days later, we had enough of a break in the rain that we were able to bring laundry in and wrapped presents out - through the front window. Now, that was a sight. This was good because the kids' tree was short on gifts, and on and I were short on clean undies. FIn the meantime, Don had found a repair guy in the area who suggested we call our insurance. yay! He would not be able to fix it in the time we were there (he has since), but he did roll it back up and zip-tied it in place. No joke. Big, strong zip-ties.

The rain was really epic. In fact, there was some pretty serious flooding in So Cal. And HARD rain!! Don and I usually love the sound of rain on our motorhome roof - but this sound was more like being surrounded by about a thousand middle school, rhythmically challenged snare drummers who are jacked up on about a quart of red bull. But it did eventually abate...

We also were all dealing with various mutations and variations of colds and/or stomach bug (hit and run variety). I managed to fight off the worst of my cold, but Don (at this writing) is STILL not rid of it! But as big of a nuisance as it was for us, you can imagine how much fun it was for Kristin with two little ones and rain rain rain. You can visit the mall just so much. Josh was also a little off his feed - sorta. He still managed to eat a pretty good lunch. We know this because a while later, he launched it halfway across the living room. So, now we have Josh crying, Grampy sneezing, coughing and blowing, Kristin taking care of Josh, Kyle and I trying to clean up the toxic spill, and Amber doing her level best to walk in it. And the rain continued. K&K's laundry is out in a little room on the balcony. SInce it was still coming down persians and poodles, Kyle and I just tossed the contaminated towels, rags, and baby blanket out on the balcony. I like to think of it as passive pre-treating, you know...going green....

The real concern was that we had the schedule of a young socialite for the next few days - family gatherings, church services, manic gift opening, and general gluttony - and we didn't know how welcome an entire family of Typhoid Mary's would be. Kristin did end up with a short but nasty bout of the tummy crud, but we were all in fine fettle (exactly what is a fettle and why is it good when it's fine!?!?) by the time the first of the festivities began. Amber really figured out the whole opening-presents-with-my-name-on-them-for-fun-and-profit this year, and by the time it was Christmas morning at Chez K Dalt, she was in a veritable frenzy. Sadly, her daddy was in a different type of frenzy - he got not one, but BOTH bugs. It does not matter how old you are, being sick on Christmas is just wrong. Kyle did his best, but while the rest of us enjoyed a big breakfast in the morning and a big turkey dinner that evening, his Christmas breakfast-lunch-dinner was crackers and Sprite. The efforts to settled his tum-tum met with, shall we say, limited success. ah, well...

The next few days were jam-packed with more stuff, including two more sleep-overs with Amber. She brought her tea set so we could have a tea party, said beverage served with sugar and...cheese. yum. We had another visit to Sea World, then celebrated Uncle John's birthday with Guncle (Uncle Greg), Nana Claire (my mom)...but no Uncle John. He had to work on his birthday, and pretty late at that, so we just had to chowie it up without him. We had a shared and delayed celebration a couple of days later when Josh turned one - a dinner with all the Daltons, tall and small, as well as friend and business partner, Autumn, with her soon-to-be-fiance, Tarkus. Wow. Lotta people. Sadly, that was our last total clan gathering before we headed back to Maui.

Our last day was spent putting the motorhome back in storage, zip-tied awning and all, and have one last afternoon and evening with grandkiddies and their parents. After a minimum of drama getting the coach ready to go, in good shape to be stored, and over to Hemet to its little spot, we had a nice dinner with the K Dalts. We smooched and squooshed the heck out of Amber and Josh, hugged their mom and dad, then off to L.A. to spend the night in a hotel close to LAX, so we had a quick trip for our early flight.

Don and I like to pride ourselves in being smart enough to learn from our mistakes. In this case, we learned from last year's stay at the grimmest Hilton ever to stay at a nice Embassy. This also meant free breakfast. Very cool. Very comfy. I also learned to dress for my destination instead of departure, so I was back in shorts and slippers, ready for travel. But I also had a jacket, so I was being sensible. After a nice night's sleep, we got up - but a bit later than we planned. Not to worry. Still had plenty of time. I was concerned, and thought that since we had the car to return, perhaps we should forgo breakfast, and just get some coffee and a muffin downstairs. No, by gum, Don was determined to have the hot breakfast offered by Embassy. We got our breakfast, and by this time I was getting pretty spazzed - about the passing time but I was also beginning to regret my wardrobe selection as the temperature in Los Angeles was in the low thirties and the large atrium at the hotel was anything but cozy. We finally got out of there and headed for the car rental agency - and time was moving. All this time we had been downing water and coffee - water because we would not be able to take these last three or four bottles of Aquafina onto the plane and coffee, well... because it was free.

We got our car turned in with no drama, and one bus had just left for the airport. Not to worry - another pulled right up. Unfortunately for us - but fortunately for a bunch of others - this generous driver decided to wait for each new person heading for the airport until his bus was full. I know what you're thinking. But the previous bus left with only about four or five folks and there was another bus right behind us for these other people!!! We finally got moving, and by this time we knew we were reeeeally cutting it close. For those of you unfamiliar with LAX, there are about 3,301 terminals, with an equal number of airlines per terminal. The 97 people in the bus with us, I swear were each flying separately as we stopped at every airline and every terminal. Okay. So the math doesn't work. But still. We were the LAST two off the bus after being the first ones on. I realize there is something very Biblical about that, but by this point, we weren't the least little bit interested in scriptural metaphors. Fortunately, the lines to check I weren't long, and we had done the online boarding so all we needed was to check our bags and print our passes. Everything was going nifty - until one of our bags weighed in at 53.4 pounds. Yes, that 3.4 pounds was going to cost us a couple hundred so I had no choice but to redistribute 3.4 pounds - kind of like Price is Right in pounds: higher, lower, lower, higher, oooooh, time is up!! Actually, the guessing wasn't as bad as the contents spilling out onto the airport linoleum. Usually when I pack, all my dainties are neatly folded underneath pants, tops, etc. Usually. But not this time. There for all to see was my undies flying out as my not-even-close-to-calm husband frantically tried to feel his way to 3.4 pounds. I grabbed a pair of shoes and a couple of sweaters, smooshed them into one of the other bags, pushed the dainties back into the larger bag, and all was weighed, tagged, and tossed onto the belt. Don and I breathed a sigh of relief and headed for the security line.

At this point, we were also beginning to do the toity tango as our waters and coffee had pretty much reached the end of their journey through our system. To make matters more interesting, LAX boasts some of the most inefficient and slow security lines we've ever experienced. Now, to be sure, we are anything but jet-setting world travelers, but we have seen enough of security lines to recognize when, just perhaps, things could be better. We were in what looked like a relatively short line, but it was veritable slug in speed. There were only two x-ray machines for the bags, one metal detector, and one rather bored looking TSA agent in front of said detector. Even though t was New Year's Eve, and travel was relatively light, it was still the end of the holiday season and plenty of folks like us were headed home. This was nuts. The line was long enough that there was one of those breaks to allow for traffic to flow through, with a rather grim looking guard to make sure that harried travelers knew that this was not the end of the line - that could be found about 25 people to his right. So, we crawled our way at a slug's pace until we reached the glum guard - and realized that we had neglected to get our boarding passes printed. Yes, really. Sometimes the self-check-in has incompetent people doing the checking-in. Think about it...We told Mr. Guard and he told us that we had better get them. REALLY?!!? We charged over to our ticket agent, but she was busy elsewhere with another agent. At this point, after flashing my undies (in the SUITCASE!!), we weren't concerned about looking like fools. That ship had sailed and was clean over the horizon. So we started waving her down like we were hailing a cab in a rainstorm - and she finally saw us, and helped us get our passes. Back to the line -WHICH HAD NOT MOVED BY A SINGLE PERSON!! The guard let us slide right back in, so now we had passed the break and bean the snakey Disneyland line.

Things were getting hairy. Not only was our departure time getting closer, our toity tango was getting downright manic. A TSA agent came around the lines and asked if anyone had an 8:30 flight. We held up our hands and said that we had and 8:34 departure - to which he replied (not even kidding) "Oh, you're fine. Plenty of time" In what universe is 4 minutes plenty of time to catch a flight at a gate nine miles away?!!? We were also behind a large (about 9 people) family who we heard was going to Mexico City. They had 7 extra minutes. Oh, the luxury of so much extra time. The family reached the front of the line and at this point, about three of them starting giving kisses goodbye to the other six!! And they were some huggy-kissy-smoochy emotional goodbyes!! The agents moved them along, and split them over the two x-rays, so we were still stuck in line. But wait!! They have three more minutes than we do!!! You could also tell that these good people had totally enjoyed their time in SoCal, as every Disney Princess doll, Universal Studios hat, and Sea World stuffed Shamu sort of erupted out of their bags. So we waited...and trotted in place.

Our turn finally came. Remember how I was dressed? (I know. It was many, many paragraphs ago) I quickly slip off my flipflops, put them in the bin with my jacket my jacket, put my camera bag on the belt, and head for the metal detector. This young woman, who had a sort of glazed over expression - until I showed up. She took a double take at my long shorts, tank top, and bare feet and said "Aren't you freezing?" Of course, I am!! Which I told her. In those words. But I told her that this was appropriate for our destination, so she didn't think I was too crazy. Much.

So, now Don and I were now at as much of a sprint as two grandparents with arms full of bags and bladders full of...well, just full. We didn't find our respective potties until the area near our gates. With an agreement to meet at our gate, we reached dashed in. As I exited much more comfortable, I looked for our gate. It was at the faaaaaaaar end of the giant hallway. As a departing traveler, there is a sound that will make your blood run cold and your legs move fast: "Final Boarding for Flight 42, departure for Kahului, Maui. Looking for passengers Dalton, party of two." Oh, lordy lordy lordy. Again, since my dignity had long since vanished, I moved as fast as I could, waving my arms frantically, saying, "It's me! Me! Me!" I made it to the gate - but there was no hubby. I finally see him exit but he isn't moving as fast as he needs to. He doesn't even hear as his name is being called!! He finally sees me waving frantically, and sort of scoots a little faster. But we get there, boarded, carry-ons stored, seat with seat belts fastened and tray tables up.

And then took time to thank God for getting us there on time, for giving us a warm home to return to, and for blessing us with kids and grandkids to miss.