Day 313 - Tampa

Well, I am here in the Hilton Gardens Hotel, sitting at the desk. For the first time this year, I almost totally forgot about the blog. It’s been a long day and it is going to be a very short night, so this post might be pretty short as well. I had to work this morning. It was a ‘B” period; the time was from 9:20 – 2:50. I really don’t like these perioda because I have to leave so early because of traffic. Anyway I finished work at about 3:15 and then went to the Delta parking lot to take the bus over to the terminal. My rules for non-rev travel say “never fly on Friday afternoon”. But when your grandchildren are involved, rules are made to be broken. So here I was at the airport trying to catch a 4:30 flight down to Tampa. Everything looked pretty full, but I figured that I would get on the last one that left at 10:30 that night as a last resort.

True to form, the 4:30 flight left the gate withoug a single non-rev. That meant that I was at least number 12 on the list for the 5:35 flight. As I walked from B-25 to A-4 I was wondering how many times I would have to walk all over the terminal tonight. The least Delta could do was have the gates close together. When I got there, I found out that I was number 13 on the list, not to bad considering. To my surprise it looked like there were 13 extra seats. I might just get on. Well it was still too early to get my hopes up. I was getting hungry. All I had eaten wastoday was a couple of packs of crackers. But I really didn’t have time to eat. I didn’t worry because if I missed this flight I had an hour and a half to get something to eat before the next flight. Well God is good, and I did get on the flight. I got to Tampa at seven and after getting the car and driving to the hotel, it was about 8:20 when I saw Jennifer, Sean, Adair and Meleah. Sean and Adair were going into a team meeting and the rest of us were just hanging out until it was over and we were going to get something for me to eat. I was getting hungry by then.

I’ll spare you the details, but it was about 9:45 when we got to Applebees and I was really famished by then. It’s not the best time to eat, but I really didn’t care. The Fajitas really tasted pretty good, and so did the beer. We sat around and talked enjoying the company until we realized it was 11PM. Adair was fast asleep back in the hotel, but we have to get up at 4AM tomorrow morning. Adair runs at 7:50, but it takes over 45 minutes to get there and they have to be early. I can’t wait to see her run; I am so glad that it worked out for me to come down. Her goal is to run somewhere in the 19 minute, less than 20 minute range. The team’s goal is to finish in the top 5 for the state. It will be amazing if they do. But they do have a chance. This is a good stepping-stone for Adair, another chance to see how to compete at the top level. She doesn’t have a chance to win, but she is only in the 7th grade. She can only get better if she keeps focused and trains. But no matter what she runs, just the privilege of being able to watch her in person is enough for me. I guess that’s why I didn’t mind flying down today and then back up tomorrow afternoon. It’s all worth it. Now to get some sleep so I won’t sleep through the 4AM alarm.