Game Changer

Game changer is defined as an event, idea, or procedure that causes a significant shift in the current manner of doing or thinking about something.  Blogging has become a 'ball and chain' for me lately, especially because I am just too busy this summer.  So I, with all sincerity and effort, plan to greatly reduce my musings and compositions from here on out.  

Thursday 7/10 - Once getting home from our Costa Rica travels at 7:30 am, after 24 hours of travel = no bed, I was dead tired, in a daze, but just not sleepy enough to go to bed or even take a nap.  I sat here working on the travel blog, but it was slow progress because I was too tired.  At one point, while letting Facebook distract me, I clicked on a bad link and got hit by a virus.  The only thing I could do was shut off my computer.  Joe was sound asleep so blogging was no longer an options.  

Two of the black 'baby' hens.  They are nearly adults.  

I did completely unpack my suitcase, do two loads of laundry, and put everything away.  I did a few household jobs like water plants and clean litter boxes and finally laid down for a nap.  





Joe woke, fixed my computer, but soon I had to get to the ranch to do evening chores. 

All was well with the horses and hens, oh and also Wanda.  

A bird has built a nest and was feeding babies back in the same spot of the large, upper shed.  I was going to try not to worry about the kids falling out this time. 

I took a Tylenol pm at 7pm and went right to sleep.

Friday 7/11 - I woke at 5am, getting ten hours of sleep.  I blogged for three hours and then went to the ranch to do morning chores.  Betty helped so we could get out on the trail because she had to be somewhere by 11am.  Our 3½ mile ride was wonderful, but started to get hot and buggy by the end.  Rico did great and I was really glad I took time to go.  

I had an early lunch and then got back to blogging.  I didn't get far before nodding off at my computer so took an hour nap.  Then after a few more hours of blogging I got too sleepy again, I took another hour nap.  Scheesh, I thought how am I ever going to get the blog finished.  

I was really missing Rose and fearing that the worst possibly happened, but I was hoping she might be at her other home and getting the care she probably needed.

I went to dinner and then the play Hairspray with Shirley.  We thoroughly enjoyed both.

It was a very late bedtime by the time I got home.

Saturday 7/12 - I would have loved a relaxing morning, but had to go to work.  Shadow heading out after breakfast, as I was leaving.  My shift at the pool started rough and then ended a little bumpy.  Mary, the new employee did not close the register correctly, so I had to call IT to get it straightened out.  And then I discovered the cash bag had four, twenty dollar bills and only seven ones and the rest quarters to total out $100 start up.  Not near enough small bills for change.

We were hit with area thunderstorms and pop-up showers from 12:15 until 2:00.  So I was forced to get people out of the water twice because of nearby thunder and then later was seesawing on the same decision when low rumbles were heard really far off.

I ran to the ranch to give Amiga a Previcox to 'prep' her before the farrier on Monday.  

It's best to have the pain/anti-inflammatory in her system a few days ahead of time.  I could tell she was sore because she was laying down when I first got there.  





I got home and made a salad for a very late lunch.  I tried to blog but took over an hour long nap.  I was really out of it when I woke up and couldn't get my eyes to focus.  But I was meeting Micki at The Grove for an evening of music and dancing.  The band, 'Four On The Floor,' was a lot of fun and great to dance to. 

Sunday 7/13 - I skipped church and finished the Costa Rican travel blog and posted it.  Then I started the wedding ceremony blog, but quickly got bogged down by so many photos.  Also, I had recalled seeing some photos that I didn’t have downloaded on my computer so I had to figure out where those were, to include them.  Two cute fawn, romping down back.  

I left for work early because first I went to the ranch to muck and give Amiga another Previcox.  I arrived at work just after the weather turned threatening; with thunder, dark skies, and an increase in wind.  I had to clear the pool two different times, but we barely got a shower.  Most folks had cleared out, so my shift was very easy.  I got home at 6:25, hot, sweaty, and exhausted.

Monday 7/14 - I left for the ranch by 6:30 to do chores and move the three Pasos down to the barn.  I was ready when Chris (the farrier) arrived early, at 8:15.  All went well, but Chris did find that Amiga had a light case of thrush on all four hooves.  In this photo, his apprentice had found Rico's 'sweet spot' and my boy was lovin' it.  Silly horse.  









I had to scurry to get to the pool by 9:15.  It was another hot, humid day with rain threatening just as I was leaving the pool and headed back to the ranch. 
I treated Amiga's thrush and gave her another Previcox. 





Bonnie sent me the above photo of Rico and Cowboy scratching each other.

I took a very short nap once home, did the night feeding of pets as usual, showered and headed to Mirror Lake Blast.  Micki, Donna, and I having fun.

Tuesday 7/15 - I'd gotten eight hours of sleep but woke at 5:00 with a headache and still feeling so tired.  Laundry, blogging, and ranch business occupied my morning and into my afternoon.








I stopped at 2:00 to go to the gym and get in a full weight workout.  It was not near as strenuous as my last one at the gym 15 days ago, but still kicked my butt.  





I went to Food City on the way home.

Patty is in Iowa helping their older sister Mary who got home from re-hab (after surgery) on Monday.  So after unloading groceries, I went back to the ranch to do chores for her and care for Amiga's hooves and lameness.  Amiga and Zorro stayed in the shade of the front pasture once I let them out of the paddock.  Rico goes with the boys in the lower paddock at night.

Wednesday 7/16 - I left for the ranch at 6am, fed the Pasos, and then took Rico down to the barn where Betty was grooming and tacking Dorado.  We headed out on a ride before 7:30.  We saw a medium size bear out on the trail.  It was crossing up ahead of us quite a way.  Our horses had heard it and were on moderate alert.  The bear looked at us and sauntered off into the woods.  Our horses looked at the bear, got a little nervous, but just stood there looking while we kept them calm.  They did excellent.  


Betty riding through the ferns on an untraveled dirt road.  





We ended up riding for over two hours, going almost seven miles.  




I cleaned the Pasos water trough; draining, scrubbing, rinsing, and re-filling it.  Rico enjoying a good roll and scratch session while I was working in the upper paddock.  




All three Pasos happily munching in the upper paddock, with the three boys nearby in the front pasture. 

I was falling asleep driving home, so grabbed a quick, late lunch and took a nap; a two hour nap, sleeping quite hard.  And I was rather disoriented when I woke.  







I made ice tea and soon Karen came over so we could work in the yard together.  Karen had raked leaves while letting Maggie hang out with her in the yard when we were in Costa Rica.  I hauled some of the many piles away, while Karen did some more raking.

Thursday 7/17 - Happy Birthdays to my brother John and sister Jean (seven years apart) and I'm not sure how old.  Joe woke me at 2am asking if I had heard the loud bang.  No, I hadn't.  I had been sound asleep.  Wondering what it was (he thought maybe something had hit a window) I got up to investigate.  

It was the wooden pallet that is the 'door' to the front of the litter box/cat tower base.  It's just outside our bedroom sliding door and sounded loud when it fell on the floor.

Totally awake, I made tea and finished the wedding blog, before getting sleepy enough to get more shut eye.  I waited to send the blog after proofing it.  Well, I slept from 5 to 8am, jumped up, walked and fed Maggie, and went to do chores (for Patty), a tad late.

I had my second cup of tea and proofed and then posted the wedding blog once back home.  Then I went to the gym for an aerobic workout, 30 minutes of rowing and just over an hour on the elliptical.  

I made another trip back to the ranch to feed, muck, and put medicine (greenish) on Amiga's four hooves.  Joe and I went out for dinner.  Stonehenge and Reds were too busy so we ended up at Sandbaggers.  I went to bed fairly soon after getting home.

Okay, so I didn't shorten this blog much, because I had already done a lot of the writing in my notes each day.  Next week will be less.

United in Costa Rica

This week was spent in Costa Rica, with Britney's wedding being the purpose for going and the highlight of our trip.  But uniting with family and friends was also experienced. 
This photo is from Daniel's wedding February of 2022.  
The joke's on you Britney!  😜

Wednesday 7/2 - Leaving Fairfield Glade at 4:00, our drive to Nashville went smoothly. We picked up dinner at Zaxby’s that we took to Courtney‘s.  









Daniel sent this photo with the comment that Layla was worn out from their company (some of Vale's family was visiting for an extended holiday weekend).

Joe, Patty and I relaxed while Courtney finished her packing and then went to Kent's.  Notice Patty's air mattress bed.  

Thursday 7/3 - I woke at 1:30 and could not get back to sleep. I finally got up at 3am and prepared for our day of travel. Our Uber driver was 15 minutes early so we felt a tad rushed getting out of Courtney‘s condo.  All went well until baggage check.  Joe had listed Patty as Patty rather than Patricia so we had to redo her ticket and baggage claim, which took a great deal of time.  

While we were dealing with the name correction, Courtney and Kent arrived and got their baggage checked.  We went through security about the same time, again with us getting held up because of Joe's metal hips.  




Courtney took a selfie of the five of us and then we went our separate ways, taking two different American Airline flights.  Their connecting flight was in Miami and ours was in Dallas.  






I posted that our flight was very empty, enabling us each to have our own row of seats, so during the flight when I got sleepy while reading, I was able to lay down and snooze for a bit.  

And then Courtney shared that her and Kent's flight was packed.  In fact, they had been asked if they wanted to switch flights and go through Dallas.

We had a two hour layover in Dallas/while Courtney and Kent had to sprint to make their connecting flight out of Miami. 

Our second (four hour) flight was packed, so napping was not so easy.  Joe had to poke fun at me, saying this was a bad burka.  










Courtney and Kent had landed in Costa Rica over an hour ahead of us.  They reported that immigration was packed, which we then also experienced.

Britney's friend Emily (from Holland Michigan) was going through immigration too, so I sent her a photo of the three of us, so she could find us possibly.   But she too, was ahead of us.

Our next stop was baggage claim.  Well, it was also our next snafu.  Patty's suitcase was nowhere to be found.  But she had put my baggage claim tag on her suitcase so that added to the confusion.  Once we were looking for my tag (on her suitcase) it was located in Dallas.  How did my bag make it and hers get left behind?    

Then we had some difficulties finding our ride to the car rental place and once there, big confusion about the charges/insurance coverage.  But finally we were on the road to the hotel.  We missed our second turn to get on the highway so ended up driving right through downtown in rush hour traffic.  It was horrible, and took forever!
 

Once checked in at the Delta Marriott in downtown San Jose, I got our dress clothes hung up in the closet. 

We all ended up at The Spoon, a nice restaurant six blocks from our hotel.  

After a tasty, and quite filling meal, we walked around in the blocks going towards our hotel, and stopped for ice cream.

It gets dark about 6:30, near the equator in Costa Rica.  Joe, Patty and I shared a room, and went to bed around 9:30.

Friday 7/4 - Happy July 4th!  Only an American holiday, there was no mention of it all day, other than some comments about really not missing the fireworks.  Juan Carlos took this photo of us at breakfast, which was long and leisurely.  







Vale's parents, two sisters and two nieces were visiting Dan's family for the extended holiday weekend.  

They always take such great photos, which I was delighted they shared.  Vale with her mom, two sisters, two nieces, and two daughters. 

Britney's US friend Emily arrived at 9:00 and we six (Joe, Patty, Juan Carlos, Britney, Emily and I) piled into the Kia SUV and headed out on a tour.
 

We went to where Juanca works and met his boss, saw Britney's new office and her work place, met many of the ladies from that ministry, and ended at the fitness building, one of the ministry sites.  

After lunch at a food court, we then drove up the mountain to the apartment where Britney and Juan Carlos live.  Their view is magnificent.  (Oh, and her tiny house is now for sale.)
 

While parked by Britney's, we heard air leaking from the back rear tire, not the front right one which had been registering low (30PSI) air pressure.  Upon close inspection, we could see a nail stuck in it where the air was leaking out.  Emily and I stuck our gum over the spot, which stopped the hiss, until an air bubble popped the gum.😆  Juan Carlos went with Joe back (partway) down the mountain to a little town where they were able to get it fixed and fill all tires to proper pressure.  

Driving back to San Jose, the back tire held up well, but the front right did not stay at 35PSI.  

Once back at the hotel, we started congregating at the bar, because the lobby didn't really have a good place.  Chris and Travis had arrived in Costa Rica with lodging at a nearby hotel.  And the Sidensticks had also checked in to the Marriott.

With the drinks came hunger and people started ordering food.  We were so comfortable and settled where we were, we all decided to just eat at the hotel bar rather than go to any restaurant.  














It is always a fun time re-connecting with family and celebrating life together.  




The great thing about being there at the hotel, was that as people got tired, they could go back to their room.  I went with the Sidensticks to the gym to check it out and get some light exercise. 

We three Villhauers soon settled in to our room for the night.

Saturday 7/5 - The Big Day.  I was up and out walking before 6am.  There was a nice park right across the street from the hotel.  I went at a brisk pace for twenty minutes and probably went just over a mile.  Next I hit the gym for a modified workout.  Then I joined Britney, Juan Carlos, and Patty for breakfast.  





We went up to the 17th floor to check out the ballroom where the wedding would be.  It was already set up and looked beautiful.  Ahem, the bride and groom smooching before the occasion.  

 

Joe went over to Chris and Travis' hotel to enjoy the hottub.  Others just hung out in their rooms or the lobby.  Some walked around and did a little shopping.  I worked on this blog but barely made a dent in it.  

Britney and Juan Carlos had to meet the musicians a little after noon to get set up.  


And then they went to the lobby to greet Tatiana (the minster's wife).  Most of us started getting ready at 1:00. 







Emily came and finished getting ready with us girls.  She took these shots of Britney and I.  Juan Carlos and Joe had already dressed and gone.  Patty, Emily, Britney and I headed up to the 17th floor at 1:30.  Several people were already gathering for the wedding and celebration which I decided to put in a separate (blog post) because there are too many photos.

After the wedding, we again started congregating in the hotel bar.  It was just a good meeting place where people could order food and drink as they wanted.  

Some of us had changed out of our formal clothes and we all kind of 'trickled' in around dinner time.  

Britney's Bribri family seen right, also got a flat tire on their day long travel to San Jose.  Wanita (the matriarch) is sitting bottom left in this first photo.  

We ate, drank a little, and were merry.  We celebrated the newlyweds, life, and togetherness.

And as usual, we were up in our room by 9:00.

Sunday 7/6 - Britney, Juanca and I were the first down to breakfast as usual, with Patty not far behind and Joe showing up after we were all finished eating.  

By 8:40, people from our group started showing up in the lobby (this photo from off the internet).  
Courtney and Kent headed out in one direction; the Sidensticks, Bakers, and Villhauers in another direction; and Britney and Juan Carlos headed home.
 

The Sidestick car load (Dave, Patti, Nicole, Michael, and Joseph) met us (Joe, Patty, Chris, Travis and I) at La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park and Wildlife Refuge.  We were soon headed off on a self guided tour.

Can you see the Stick Snake?  Its head is near bottom right corner and its body goes up diagonally to almost the left corner of photo.  

This three toed sloth slowly made its way over toward me when I went inside its enclosure.  

Look at that face.

We walked from one enclosure to another, observing the different animals.  The snakes, monkeys, cats, and several other critters were in cages; but with some, you entered their habitat to observe them.  

We enjoyed hanging out in the butterfly enclosure.  There were so many of them, just gliding around doing what butterflies do.  This one 'rode along' on David's hat for awhile.  

We especially liked the Blue Morpho butterfly which is blue on top of its wings (seen in my photo of it flying) and brown on the underside (seen on David's hat).  

They had on display, butterflies at all stages of life.  










And I found my own evidence of growth and development.  These caterpillars are obviously of two different species.  





The employees had pinned up a bit of the leaf that the caterpillar had used to make its chrysalis (same as a cocoon that become a moth).  Both are protective casings formed during the pupa stage of insects undergoing the total process of  metamorphosis.  




After the caterpillar has undergone a complete transformation, reorganizing its body structure and developing into an adult, it emerges as a beautiful butterfly.  This one had recently crawled out of its encasement and was on the wall drying its wings right next to the display of chrysalises.  If you look closely at the above photo, you can see they are at different stages of emerging.  








Chris also had a hitchhiker on his hat that may have been carried out of the butterfly building.   

In the bird house we got a group shot (except for Joe, Patty, and Chris) with the yellow-throated toucan.

The hummingbirds were not contained, but attracted by numerous feeders.  This is not a black and white photo, but kind of cool how it appears that way, looking up at two hummingbirds in the branches overhead.










We saw several of the 52 hummingbird species native to Costa Rica.  

I can't remember what this mammal was, but it was interested in David, or his map.

I didn't get any photos of any of the monkeys, but they too were very interested in watching the people.  










Somebody spotted this frog along the walking path.  






We arrived at the restaurant just before noon, and enjoyed a big buffet for lunch, all part of the tour.  


After lunch we hiked to see the main attraction, the five waterfalls.  

The weather was great, and we were lucky not to get rained on.  We did, however, get wet from the mist of the falls we got close to.  

A selfie on the bridge over the La Paz River.  

In this photo you can see three falls simultaneously.  



At the observation area seen behind me, you got quite wet.  Dave, Michael and Joseph were the only brave ones to get that close.


Once we had completed the mile long hike, up and down the mountain side, we took a shuttle back to the visitor center where we had parked.  



We said our goodbyes to the Sidensticks who were going to walk to Trout Lake.  









We saw more 'wildlife' on our way to the car, catching this guy raiding the trash.







During the next two hour leg of the trip, we got up-dates from the girls.  Britney and Juan Carlos were resting at their apartment and going through wedding cards and photos.  Juanca displayed his new mug from Joe, that he really likes.  

Courtney and Kent were lounging at their resort on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.  





Once at our Airbnb - Casa Luna - in Río Cuart, we too rested, relaxed, and I worked on this blog.  

We had dinner two miles away at Perezoso Steakhouse.  The beer was tasty and refreshing.  The Caesar salad I had was presented with the lettuce on top of warm Canadian bacon strips.  Unbelievably yummy.  





My meal, chicken fettuccine Alfredo was also amazingly scrumptious.  And look at the beautiful presentation of Travis' meal.  
 

There was a sloth in a tree in a courtyard just outside the restaurant that the bartender had us (Patty and I went) come see after we all (except Travis) were finished eating.  And then he showed us the cacao fruit that chocolate is made from.    

He offered us a try.  Each bean was covered in a slimy but sweet white fruit pulp.  You don't eat the bean.  Patty stated they looked like chicken hearts making it impossible for me to give it a try.  (I did try one on a tour Tuesday however.)  We hit a grocery store for breakfast supplies on the way back to our Airbnb. 

Monday 7/7 - I had slept better because our double bed here was much firmer than the one the past three nights at the hotel.  This is a sweet photo, at the hotel bar, a day before the wedding, that Courtney took and just shared.  

The boys had left early to check out a park and Chris sent us this photo of the Arenal Volcano, which later in the day you couldn't see the top of because the clouds had moved in.  

Then we all left at about 10:00, drove about 45 minutes to Mistico Park Hanging Bridges near La Fortuna.  





We asked someone to take our photo with Arenal Volcano in the background. Notice the clouds covering the top of it now.

We had a small quick lunch before meeting our tour guide and then took a 2½ hour tour, with one other couple along with us. 
 
 

Chris, Travis, and the couple crossing one of the seven hanging bridges.  








And in this close-up Patty and our guide, bringing up the rear.  Joe was in front of me.  

This is a later bridge crossing after we had been drenched by a heavy rain.  My jacket ended up not being water proof.   

In addition to walking  2½ miles, up and down the mountain side, we also saw lots of wildlife and got caught in a 30 minute torrential downpour.  








Can you see the walking stick?  Hint - It is horizontal, under the leaf, and almost a foot long.  




This waxy looking tube attached to a tree was made by the small Stingless Bee.  Because it has no stinger, it goes through the pipe to hide in the tree.  If you enlarge the photo, you can see a few of the tiny bees on the pipe.  





These next four photos were taken by our tour guide through his spotting scope.  This is the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog also called the Blue Jeans Frog.  



This is a very small tarantula, in a hole about the size of my thumb.  










This is an Eyelash Palm Pit viper.  










This sloth was not happy about the rain and was waiting it out curled up on the side of this tree, about 40 yards up.   

Our guide got us towels when we got back to the visitor center.  Once 'dried off' or at least not dripping wet, we drove back to Río Cuart.  





We went to our next Airbnb, just a mile from last night's (which wasn't available for a second night).  We got out of our wet clothes and put on swim suits.

Now we were off to Baldi Hot Springs, just 15 minutes away.  There were eight different pools of varying temperatures.  The hottest one you couldn't stay in for more than 15 to 20 minutes.  

This pool, where we spent much of our time, was warm but not too hot.  And it had a bar.  







At some point during the day, we got word from Emily (who was touring elsewhere in Costa Rica with her friends) that they had gotten a flat tire.  







The hot springs had been wonderfully relaxing.  We got back to our Airbnb about three hours later, changed, and headed to Nanku, a restaurant Tracy and Teresa had enjoyed and recommended.  It was another great dining experience.
 

Tuesday 7/8 - Today's tour had been moved later, to 11am, and was only 15 minutes away, so we had a slow, relaxing morning.  I had so many photos to download, edit, and organize, I only made a small dent.  

We arrived early to La Fortuna, San Carlos for the Craft Specialty Coffee and Chocolate Tour.  After doing some souvenir shopping, our tour got underway.  







Our guide lead the 14 of us for the full 2½ hours.  He gave explanations of the entire process for cocoa seeds (that I tasted the pulp of) and coffee beans (which I smelled many kinds of) to the final product.  Sugar cane harvesting was also demonstrated and tasted.  Everything was thorough enough to understand, but not so in depth it was boring.

We got lots of samples throughout the tour and I discovered that I prefer the dark chocolate that's 85% cocoa.  And it's even better with a little sea salt sprinkled on top.









I did not sample the coffee, but loved the smell of it roasting.







Coffee plants are seen here with Arenal volcano in the background.  The coffee is only ripe for picking December - February.  Cocoa ripens year round. 

They provided us with umbrellas, and a few times it looked like it could pour, but we never had to unfurl our rain protection.  







This cat, sleeping near the visitor center, really reminded me of Rose, and I was starting to long for home.  







We hit the road for our next Airbnb about 1:30.  It was a two hour drive and about halfway to the airport.  We stopped for a late lunch after being on the road for an hour, to fill our tummies and rest my butt.  Once again, Chris used his GPS to help us find a nice restaurant. 

While traveling, we kept an eye on our front right tire air pressure, which was no longer holding at the already low 30PSI.  The tire pressure kept slowly creeping down and was to 24PSI by the time we got to our Airbnb in Casa Vista Verde near Zarcero.  







Joe had been given the wrong entry code so we had to wait for the landlord to reply to our 'mayday' text to him.

This is our deck, over looking the mountainside.  



And this is the view from the deck!  We were at 5500 feet above sea level so it was actually rather cool. 

Once into the Airbnb, our first order of business was to head into Zarcero to get our tire checked.  The attendant checked the pressure on all four and filled the very low front one.  



We proceeded a few miles into down town and toured the Church of San Raphael.  



It was a beautiful church and had a gorgeous topiary garden in front.  

We walked in and around and even through the pine and cypress trees, shaped into arches and whimsical patterns.  

This one area had a teepee made out of the bushes, with this one in the middle having trimmed branches that connected to all the perimeter ones.  It was a very cool fort like area for kids to play in.  Joe had me hide and peak for this photo.  

Grabbing foodstuff at the grocery across the street, we got what was needed for a light dinner and breakfast.  Once back in the car, our tire was nearly flat again so we went back to the gas station, waited a bit, and then had it looked at.  There was a big nail (seen where this plug was being placed).  Fixed in no time, for $10.00, we were on our way back to the Airbnb, hopefully in time for the sunset.  





Patty, who had stayed back at the house, sent these two photos.  







And soon we arrived back, with the plug working and the tire pressure holding.  



We started with libations on the lookout deck, but the wind had really picked up and it had gotten colder, so we moved inside.  








This was taken looking down our drive and at the western sky.  Dark was descending upon us.  The boys watched a silly movie and us two ladies went to bed.

Wednesday 7/9 -  This was our day to fly home, so nerves had me up early.  I caught sunrise over the beautiful vista.  

Our travel day ended up lasting from 7:30am (when we left the Airbnb in Zarcero) until 7:30am (24 hours later) when we arrived at home in Fairfield Glade.

We drove two hours, thankful the front tire held its pressure; filled the rental car with gas, returned it and took the car rental's shuttle to Juan Santamaria Intl. Airport.

We got three of our bags checked, obtained our boarding passes, got through security, and then sat and waited.  Travis was flying to Houston (four gates down from us) and Chris was on our flight to Dallas, so we all waited the two hours together.  Travis flew out earlier and then our flight was about 40 minutes late leaving Costa Rica.

Seen below can you see my four companions?  Patty and Travis are fairly obvious, but where are Joe and Chris?

When we landed in Dallas, we had an hour to go through immigration, get our checked bags, go through customs, drop our checked luggage back off, and then go back through security, before we could go to our next gate to catch our plane to Nashville.  And Chris only had 45 minutes to do this and get to his flight to Indianapolis.

Below, in Costa Rica, eating salad and blogging, while standing to 'save' my butt for sitting on the plane.  

We only made our connecting flight in time (as did Chris) because both were delayed.  Our plane was at the gate, but our pilot had been re-routed to Oklahoma City because of weather so we were waiting on him to arrive.
American Airlines ended up using our plane to fill in for a different cancelled flight so then we had two more hours to wait.  Finally, once boarded just after midnight, I thought our troubles were over.  Nope.  The plane they put us on had been bound for San Francisco and had too much weight (in fuel) to be able to land in Nashville, so we had to wait to have it de-fueled of 6,000 lbs of gas.  

Well, de-fueling was a fiasco too, so we were on the plane for over three hours before finally taking off at 3:40am.  We only had a two hour flight, but with the time change, it was 4:40 when we finally landed.  This is the sunrise in Nashville.  








Travis had missed his connecting flight in Houston, but was already home by the time we had taken off.  Chris, whose flight was also quite late, was in the air somewhere, so would be home before us.

We were glad to see our suitcases (mine containing Britney's wedding dress) at baggage claim, then caught an Uber to Courtney's, where Joe had a cup of coffee.  We hopped in the SUV, me being able to lay down and rest my bottom and catch some sleep, while Patty kept Joe awake as he drove home.  At 7:30am we were home.
  
I despise traveling but would do it again in a heartbeat for such a special occasion.  This is a glimpse of my next blog that will be all wedding photos.