SIX HOURS OF PURE AGONY!

Soon, I will board a jet for Burbank, California. It is by far one of the worst things I do but it results in the best thing that happens. It is worth the aggravation, restless legs and cramped quarters of the silver tube that shoots across the continental United States six hours later on the ‘left coast’.

I will have to deal with early morning traffic to JFK as the commuters try at the ungodly hour of 4:00 AM to break all land speed records for getting to their jobs! As I approach the Belt Parkway, (Robert Moses constipation is borne), I will have to deal with the winding and twisting lanes of traffic as they narrow down in width and more drivers join the attempts at suicide. Then I get to the parking company lot where I will leave off my car and pray that it is still there when I get back, in one piece.

Climbing onto the van that will shuttle us (I will be traveling with TLW-‘The Little Woman’) to the JetBlue terminal jostled by the lack of struts and suspensions to JFK I will watch the city at it awakens, as I hold on to anything that doesn’t shift.

Once I get off the van, I will pay the driver a small tip as he bounces my luggage off his van and I dodge the new wave of suicide walkers and drivers as they speed and cross in front, on the sides and behind me, entering a crowded terminal of weary travelers who really would do all this than stay home in bed.

TSA 

If there is one saving grace from all this it is the TSA, those wonderful letters they have been putting on my ticket to Burbank that denotes I am not a terrorist, just look that way. As others gather at the check-in security gate online, taking off a lot of their clothes we breeze through, fully clothed! Once we are through the ordeal, the worst of the trip is over for the exception of the 6-hour flight.

Landing in Burbank is another ordeal. You disembark from the plane and have to climb down the steps to the tamarack and walk to the building where it is a good walk to the carousel for our luggage. If you rent a car you need to really walk a great distance, take an escalator and three or four walking sidewalks to the car rental area, where, if you are lucky someone is present to rent you a car.

But once this is done and I arrive at my son’s house, the anticipation of the little ones, the palm trees, and the warm pleasant weather await me, with the Mediterranean Caffe’ and my favorite sushi place!