Never wear your Brogs in an airport or anywhere except the field. I put mine on before I leave the car.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. When you stop sweating you are in trouble.
Good to season before each season. The older you get the more the heat and humidity will get to you. It beat my butt at Funkstown 160 and I was watching out for it.
If you feel bad sit down in the shade.
Never spend a night "camped out"
at an airport. Hotels are always close by.
EDIT: This is the whole story...
I thought better of not saying what happened. My grandmother turned 100, so I had to go see her. Got to SLC, and I had this whole thing set up with one of these travel companies. But I found out I can't rent a car without a deposit from my credit or ATM card.
I travel with cash. I can't stand ATMs and I don't have credit cards because I'd end up with a field howitzer. So my wife hops on the phone (she's a saint. I'd have been stuck there still without her) and canceled the car reservation. This has bearing, but I'm not there yet.
So the next day she thinks it straightened out. So I go back. No, not fixed so I became Uber bound. The terminal isn't JFK sized, but it's pretty big. I'm not one to travel in my flip flops so I had my steel toed boots on. Very nice boots but they'll weigh on ya. I walked through that terminal four times in two days.
The next morning I wake up and go to stand and almost fall down. I can't walk. So I'm stuck. Fortunately it was Sanford and Son reruns all day, so that was OK. Next day I can walk... like right out of Mary Shelly I can walk. But forget this, I'm going to see my grandmother. She's a hundred and broke two vertebrae in her neck. It's just getting to that point, you know? And my family acts like she's out of it. Her short term gone. Long term is like we talked yesterday. Sad as I know I won't see her again, but she's always been a great person to be around.
So last day I go back to the airport. I have a little wait, about five hours but LO!, the ticket got messed up. My wife canceled the car AMD the ticket home by accident. So I had to wait 24 hours. With little cash on hand by this point I said to myself, "I guess you're here until tomorrow."
My wife is freaking out. Asking me if I'm going to be OK, how am I going to eat, that caring spouse. I told her I'll be fine.
The desk for American opens at 3:30 in the morning and I'm there. Got my huge surplus pack and my surplus toolbar I call carry-on. I'm not bringing there world with me. It a four hour flight.
So let me back up. I'd been up since 8AM. So by the time I got the terminal and found out i had to wait 24 hours, I'd alrealI'd been been up for 16 hours.
So then the American desk.opens and I check in. Contrary to what you might think I don't like to fly and as my wife sais, "I can't be left unsupervised."
So I check my pack in, get my boarding pass and go through TSA. They were very nice. I joked with them that I had a plate in my head. I got a laugh. But when I went through the scanner I didn't show up on the screen. The guy said 'we'll do it again'.
I still didn't show up. I assured him I was there. The third time it worked... but I blinked. Stranfely its where I have a large amount of tattoo work. So I mention that to the guy. The ink has iron oxide in it. So I mention it the guy and he says it's rare, but it does happen. I get frisked and put my boots back on. So now I have to wait. I get some very good coffee and I wait...
To describe the area I was waiting in I can only describe it as a slightly more humane Andersonville. People in all sorts Contortious, sleeping, staring at the ceiling, just multitudes, multitudes. By 9AM I thought, "Never mind this. I'm getting a cocktail. I don't drink much and never in the morning. But caution to the wind, I'm gonna have a few.
So I do. But I'm drinking two glasses of water to each drink. So that way I'm staying hydrated and all. I found this pretty nice restaurant and had a truffle and ham grilled cheese. I never truffles before. Pretty good. By this point I was thinking, "Nobody knows the truffles I've seen."
I had left some money with my father. Back up cash, just in case. Even though his sleep schedule is cat like I get a call and he says, "I'm gonna send what you left with me. I feel bad your stuck."
The wife is freaking out. Totally worried about me. She's great and helpful. But I'm starting g to get kinda screwy in my mind from being awake for so long. So I have another adult beverage...
So I've had about 12 in me, and I've been up for 40 some odd, and I do mean odd hours. And my grandmother is making me feel bad with the her end of life coming. I refuse to cry in public. A d no time.
I had been there so long I guess the TSA was looking at me. I see one guy, then another, then another and the fourth. They had me blocked in. And poorly. Right then my wife calls and I'm going, "I still stuck here."
The TSA guys take flight. Like I hadn't.
With two hours to go I have a last drink and head to the terminal. But my boarding pass is wrong g. So I end up walking 500 miles to the B terminal. There is very little air-conditioning there. All my clothes are sitting, waiting to get on the plane. Doesn't matter how much deodorant I put on, I'm starting to smell. Not my idea of fun.
I flew out there United. Super nice. But the people who were flying were not friendly. The people on American were super cool. Kids running around, people joking around, they were cool.
But American was a commuter flight and it was an ancient 737. If you've seen a WW2 movie and the B-17 is taking flack over Frankfort, that was what it was like when we took off. Sounds like rivets are popping out of the thing. I ask for a drink, gotta love 2st class, and I watch the SLC terminal disappear. I watched the lights from the town's below. Then I land in Charlotte.
I find a nice place to sit down there, have my usual snd three big glasses of water. Now I'm realky stinky and the changed the gate. I had to literally run across the airport.
By the time I get on the new 737 I reek. The guy behind me starts with a commentary by making sniffing noises. After about 15 minutes I've had enough. So everything he sniffs, I sniff louder. This goes on for 30 minutes. I finally, mercifully land in Newark amd its about an hours ride home.
So that is why I'm taking walks every day now. To reenact one must move. So I must stay in motion.
If this teaches you anything, never wear boots on a plane. 50-ish hours dragging those around is not, nor ever will be fun.
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