I've got a little time before I head off to chemo, so will start to catch you up on my trip.  The day of my flight, October 23, did not start out terribly auspicious: first I was awakened by a text at 4:30am (it originated on the East Coast, where it was a more respectable 7:30; normally I turn my cell phone off at night just to avoid such occurances, but it was bedside and on because I was using it for an alarm clock.) On the plus side I went back to sleep - but on the other hand the alarm never did go off (that could have been a real crisis!) Then halfway to the airport we were at a virtual standstill on I-17 for about 20 minutes because of a bad accident involving 2 motorcycles (no sign of the victims  - or ambulances - so hopefully the riders were already at the hospital being treated!) that had the HOV and left lanes blocked off (at which point I resigned myself to missing the flight and doing it all over again the next day), and then (just to add insult to injury) once we finally arrived at Sky Harbor the folks at Security confiscated my breakfast (a little tublet of yogurt) but not the sharp scissors in with my needlework...

All along there was additional stress because I had to change planes in Kansas City (Southwest discontinued 'my' nonstop flight a couple of years ago) so there was the added worry of  me (or my luggage) missing my connection.  HOWEVER once I got to the gate things started looking up - it turned out to be an Honor Flight, with several dozen WWII veterans and their wives heading to DC to visit the WWII memorial.

It's quite a program - read all about it out here!

http://www.honorflight.org/ 

I knew that even if we were late arriving in KC (we weren't) they were bound to hold the next flight since all of them were making the same connection.  It also meant my luggage had a good chance of making the same trip I did.  It was definitely an honor to fly with them, and there was quite a celebration at Sky Harbor, Kansas City, and BWI.  (They were all wearing bright orange-yellow Honor Flight tee shirts, and a number of folks commented that I looked like one of their group in my bright spider tee of the exact same shade.) Despite the fact that SWA has been a sponsor for Honor Flights for many years, this was the first time I had the pleasure of being on one.  For our arrival at BWI there were fire engines spraying arcs of water over plane to welcome the vets.

Once I knew my luggage had made the same trip I was able to relax and truly start my vacation.

And now off to chemo :-)