"Travel is only glamorous in retrospect” – Paul Thereoux
Because I had to cancel this trip so many times, something in my brain simply refused to believe that I was actually going. Although I kept telling myself that yes, I really AM going, it didn’t seem real. Due to this, I put off all of that important packing and stuff until the very last minute on the night before I left. Okay, so, truth be told, I probably would have procrastinated it anyway, but this version sounds better.
I only have one real suitcase, so I asked my mom, who lives upstairs from me, if I could borrow one of hers. When I went up there to get it, I found that my cat Tiger Lily had already packed herself.
Packing for a December trip is always a challenge. I’ve encountered everything from weather where it was so hot I didn’t feel like anything, to really chilly “let’s do indoor things today!” weather, to days of rain. I checked the Weather channel for info, but as you’ll find out, they lied.
I’ve always hated having to work on the day that I leave for my trip, but this year I left on a Sunday, and found myself wishing that I did have to work, because the time passed so slowly! At long last, though, it was Sunday afternoon, and my mom agreed to drive me to the airport so that I wouldn’t have to pay to leave my car parked there for a week.
I flew out of Springfield (SGF), but my flight included a layover in Chicago. Let’s take a moment to examine the stupidity of that, shall we? Just in case geography isn’t your thing, I have provided a visual aid:
I looked it up, and to fly straight from my airport to Orlando would be around 1140 miles. However, flying to Chicago and then Orlando is about 1700 miles! My kingdom for a direct flight!
Springfield airport is *tiny*- there is one gift shop, one café, and ten gates. Probably really nice if you’re switching planes there and want to get from gate to gate quickly, but not so much fun if you get there 90 minutes early to check in, and then just have to sit.
It was a dark, stormy, freezing cold kind of night, so mom kept me company for a while, but then I talked her into going home, since driving an hour and a half when it’s threatening to snow is really no fun. After goodbye hugs, I went through security, and headed up to my gate. After getting settled in, I was suddenly struck by an overwhelming sense of loneliness. What was I doing? What am I getting myself into? Do I really want to spend and entire week all alone? I’m going to go crazy! Maybe this trip was a bad idea!
I was just about to break out into an “I want my mommy!” when a flight arrived at the gate I was sitting at, so I got distracted watching people come off (people watching = fun!). I was watching a mother put her baby in his stroller (babies = cute!), and when she turned around, I was surprised to recognize her as a girl I went to school with! She came over to where I was sitting to chat for a minute, and I realized that it really is a small world, and no matter how far you are from home, you’re never really alone. I was ready to go to Disney World!
This is getting long. I promise that at some point in this trip report, I really do make it to Disney World.
Shortly after everyone was off the plane that had just arrived at my gate, I was boarding, and slipping into my exit row (yay!) seat. I settled into my seat, and pulled out my notebook to jot a few things down. There’s my notebook, but oops! I forgot to bring a pen! I have crosswords, a book of various puzzles, and a notebook to amuse myself on this flight, and I forget a pen! Good thing I brought my CD player, at least I’ll have music. Let’s listen to M-I-C..K…J-a-g-g-e-r! (What? I like Mickey Mouse and all, but I don’t want to listen to him sing for two hours!)
Two hours is a really long flight if you, like me, can’t sit still for more than five minutes at a time. Add the fact that I’m on my way to Disney World to this, and it was all I could do not to climb the walls (which would really be quite the feat, since I’m 5’10, and the plane was only about 5’6 high… but I digress…)
So, two very long hours later, we landed in Chicago and I darted into the first gift shop I could find for a pen. $3 later, I was back out and speed walking to my gate. Why do they always make you go from one side of the airport to another to catch your connecting flights?
I had to make it from that top star to the bottom one FAST.
The sad thing was that the Chicago airport is really cool, but I had no time to stop and appreciate it! On my way from one gate to another, I passed a full-sized brontosaurus skeleton, a cheesecake kiosk (closed, so sad), and a life-sized gold flying cow. Maybe on the way home I can stop to check things out.
Back on another plane for another too-long-to-sit-still flight. Finally, though, we were over Orlando! Is it just me, or does everyone else always search the ground below for WDW when you’re flying over? I have never, ever been able to see it, either! Of course, half of the time I’m flying in at night, which doesn’t help…
But back to the point: I was there!
Warning: I’m about to go off on a tangent here! I hate winter. I hate ice on the roads, and freezing cold weather, and the lack of sun. The thing I really hate, though, is how grey everything becomes. The grass dries up and is no longer green, the leaves wither and turn brown, and even the sky turns a sleepy shade of grey. It’s as if all of the color gets sucked out of the world for three months. This is exactly why I love going to WDW in the winter- I always feel like Dorothy when she arrives in Oz- stepping out of her black and white world and into Technicolor. All at once, everything is bright and beautiful and alive.
Because of this, I have a special love of the big Christmas trees that are always up in the Orlando airport this time of year. You step off of your plane, a little ragged from a day of travel, make your way down that grayish hallway that leads into the terminal, and there it is. Color, light, beauty, excitement, festivity. You’re stepping in to Oz.
