Finally! A Real Adventure!

Waves to all my new friends following along on this adventure, especially the girls known as Pathfinders and Rangers (Girl Guides) who seem to be most interested in the idea of a little teddy bear making fun of their leader, Clare.  I hope I don't disappoint.  

 So it is that I set off on my first adventure in over three years, well unless you count my mini two-day trip back in May.  Anyways, this journey brings me back to Utah for the fourth time, so you might be wondering why I'm even excited, since we all know that I don't much like repeat performances.  However, I have been assured that we are adding a trip to the trip!  There are rumours about driving down to some big park run by a weird looking giant mouse.  I can't say that sounds exciting to me, but Clare assures me it is.  Whatever ;)  

 So the adventure began last night with an almost-alnighter pulled by Clare as she attempted to finish a Halloween costume and THEN pack for this trip.  I have no idea what this Halloween thing is, nor why she needs a costume, but I guess I'll find out.  As for the packing, well I still don't understand why you humans need so much stuff!  

The airport was a treat, as usual.  Who knew five years could bring so many changes to terminal three.  What used to be a simple walk up to a kiosk, talk to a nice person and hand them your baggage, and get pointed in the direction of your gate (oh and security and customs line-ups of course), now is at least four steps of automated self-serve kiosks that seemed to ask the same questions over and over... and all before reaching security!  Then there was even more self-serve kiosks on the other side of security to deal with customs.  Wow!  Still, very grateful for Clare's NEXUS card which got us through much quicker.

 At the gate, we found more changes; table after table with iPads at every seat for complimentary use (or connect your own devices to the outlets or USB ports and type away.  Very strange, but hey, effective for writing a blog.    

 Flight was slightly delayed, but mostly uneventful.  Clare was excited to discover "Finding Dory" on the seat-back screen thing (whoever came up with that idea was briliant!). The best "story" came from our flight attendant, when the woman in the seat next to us asked about her connecting flight (as we were late).  I believe the attendant meant to say that if she didn't get back to her before we landed, she'd come give her info after.  However, what came out of her mouth was "If we land, I'll come back then". The woman and I just stared at each other, and she whispered to me "IF we land?  Those are comforting words!"  Yeah!    

 Good news.  We landed!  

Bad news.  Clare's sneaker fell apart.  Try walking when your shoe is doing this with every step.  I was quite amused even if she wasn't.  

 After a fun tour of the Salt Lake City airport, we picked up checked luggage and eventually found the location of the shuttle bus to get to our rental car.  The attendant in the rental place had a thing for Canadians and gave us a free upgrade - yay!  Clare was so excited to get behind the wheel of this nice little car with touch start buttons, navigation, and more bells and whistles than she knew what to do with.  A few minutes later she had to pull into a Wendy's parking lot to figure out how to turn the radio off, how to change the mirrors and a number of other things that have always seemed fairly simple before.    

 Sadly, we may not get to keep said fancy car :(.  The journey from SLC to Orem (where KayRena and family live) is approximately 45 min, and Clare and I could not figure out why people were flashing their lights at us.  Finally, when we pulled off the highway, someone pulled up beside us and informed Clare she had no tail lights.  NONE.  It was dark.  Sheesh no wonder people were upset.  Clare has tried to call the company, but has to wait until tomorrow to find out what to do about it.  I'm afraid we are going to lose our really nice upgrade too.  *sigh*  

 Arrival at the Hogan house was exciting as usual.  I was met by very excited children in the driveway and was quickly whisked away for fun adventures such as being tied up to look like I'm rock climbing up the bedpost.  I'd rather forgotten their enthusiasm.  What I wasn't prepared for was how much these little humans had grown in three years.  Clare and Rissa don't seem to have changed much at all in the 11 years I've been with them.  Apparently little humans don't stay little!  Strange.

 Well I know it hasn't been the most exciting entry ever, but at least you all know I got here safely.  Oh and Clare did too.  

 Whatever.