Portland, Oregon...Here I come!

Portland Oregon…Here I come!

Let me start with this hard core fact…I hate flying! I would rather give birth to a 20 pound baby, breached, without any pain killer, then fly in an airplane. Enough said!

My oldest daughter, Kate, has been living in Portland, Oregon for the past three years. I have never visited her there, never saw where she lives, and have never seen Portland. Thank heavens that she travels to Cleveland, Ohio, for work a lot, and when she does, I get to see her.

Finally, after trying to figure out how to get to Portland by train, my daughter said that she would fly with me and that is where our adventure began. First, she mistakenly booked her flight for Thursday, September 1, instead of for Friday, September 2. The airlines sent her an email that they cancelled her from her flight, since she was a no show. She sent me that message and I thought it was a joke, and laughed…but it wasn’t. Knowing full well that I would bail out of the trip, because I said so  – Kate booked another flight. We would meet at the Southwest Airlines Gate in Pittsburgh, where we would board together. My journey was just starting and of course, Kate’s journey had started at around 4 am from Portland with a layover in Denver, on her way to Pittsburgh.

After a five hour flight from Pittsburgh, we would land in “Viva” Las Vegas and re-board another plane to Portland, which would take another two hours.

We arrived at Kate’s house by midnight. Since I was still on the ‘burgh time – my internal clock said 3 am, when my head finally hit the pillow.

For Kate it was 18 hours of flying and a stop at four different airports in four different cities!

For me – I gave Kate a hug and high five for flying with me. I refrained from kissing the ground when we arrived in Portland. I also have to give a hearty thanks to that shot of ‘Jaeger’ at the bar, before we left Pittsburgh!