A Memorial of my own!

I made it! I am here! Against the odds, I eventually arrived in WI later Friday evening than my itinerary indicated I would. Justin came to my house on Friday morning, telling me that he would come not long after he woke up that a.m., as he told me on Thursday, “I don’t want you to have any stress…” Somehow, that did not work out once I left Jacksonville. After my tearful farewell to him at the airport, I navigated without incident through security, going through the “put your arms over your head and make moose ears” screening device, which was more of a test of following simple directions than anything else. I did not mind being called “young lady” one little bit.

The flight to Atlanta was swift and without incident, and I made my way to the next gate with time to spare, allowing for a Chik Fil A sandwich and even some Aunt Annie’s cinnamon pretzel sticks. We boarded our flight to MKE, I was on track to have Lori and David collect me there on their way to Manitowoc. All seated, buckled in, and then the announcement came: “This is your Captain. When we landed we had one of the three generators not operating, which is fine, but now that the tail generator was disconnected, we see that we lost a 2nd generator. Who is optimistic with me that the mechanics can repair it in 20 minutes like they think?” I did not offer my support on this. Glad I didn’t because the repair they attempted failed and I had not charged my phone in the airport as I should have, leaving me with limited battery power. I borrowed a phone from the young lady next to me (we eventually because quite familiar as you will hear) and called Mom to let her know, asking her to call Lori and let them know.

Well, we had to get off the plane again and were told to wait in the gate area for further information, except those who had to make connections. They were sent down the hall to rebook. Immediately I located an outlet and charged my phone, sending text messages to Lori about the situation. The pilot stayed with us the entire ordeal, herding us from gate to gate before we found a plane that could leave once it landed. Three times we changed gates, and three times we boarded the planes, en masse. I felt most badly for the service people trying to get home to see their families on leave, and others on the plane had tickets for the Brewers’ game that night. Instead of arriving in MKE at 4:00 pm as planned, my plane landed around 7:45. And my heroes, Lori and David, found stuff to do instead of ditching me in MKE! My family and I were planning a dinner at Charcoal Grille that night but cancelled that as well. It was so wonderful to get upstairs to Mom’s and situated. For my inconvenience, I was given a $100 travel voucher from Delta…We’ll see if that is all I get, once I pursue this a bit further.

Saturday morning a group of my family went to have coffee (soda) at Manitowoc Coffee downtown where I saw some people I knew from the old days. Former neighbors and fellow builders who were host parents for one of the foreign exchange students graduating from Lutheran High Sunday. Nice! In the building where the coffee shop was housed were also a couple gift shops where Lori bought a purse. The man running the shop, I discovered, was a former classmate of mine, actually a year older than me, had a crush on me 100 years ago, as was indicated in my yearbook. (Proof!!!) He did not recognize me but I knew him. Lori got the MLHS alumni discount when buying a purse from his shop!

Kerry, Lori, and I went to run some errands for the graduation party to be held that afternoon for my nephew, Danny, and found a stand selling brats. Oh my! And do I love Festival Foods grocery store, too! The brat was delicious, would have to hold me over until I get my first perch sandwich, which was to have been Friday night!!!!!

More later, time for the Memorial Day Parade downtown! Thank you, service members, active and retired, for your service, and thanks to those whom we are remembering today!