Travels with The Rayman

 

I’m shocked.  Shocked.  When trying to listen to my music on the Southwest jet today, I couldn’t access my music because it is all in the iCloud.  So, we’re flying through clouds and the iCloud is messing with me.  Who knew?  Did you?  My advice.  Move some of your music to your iPhone or iPad so you can listen to it in the clouds because if it doesn’t physically exist on your “toy”, you can’t access it.  As you know, the iCloud required wifi and you can’t use wifi on an airplane.  Ain’t technology great?

Hi folks.  I’m writing from Charleston, N.C.  Just arrived after a day of flying.  My arms are tired.  My head is tired.  My body is tired.  My Rayman is tired.

Just switched off the Democratic convention. Obama just spoke.  Man, is he fabulous.  It’s the only speech I watched the entire time.  Been too busy moving, traveling etc.  Life gets in the way.  Glad I was able to catch the speech though.  As a person, I can definitely identify with him and the Dems.  He’ll get my vote…again.

But I digress.  Let me see.  Last night we spent the night in L.A.  When we checked into the hotel, there was no reservation waiting for us.  What?  Luckily the Hacienda had room at the Inn.  Bottom line.  I made the reservation for the wrong date.  It is so hard being me.  I had us checking in a day before we had reserved a room.  Hence no reser.  Luckily, no extra charges ensued.  I’m quite sure they took one look at us and felt pity.  It’s come to that folks.  I can hear the people behind the desk.  “Had an older couple try to check in.  No reservation listed.  Ends up they screwed up the arrival date.  God.  How hard can it be?”  Well, let me tell you something…darn hard.  Life is hard.  So there you have it.  Of course, this has probably never happened to you.  But IT HAPPENED TO US.  So.  Moving on.

Had an excellent flight to Nashville today.  Then a problem raised it’s ugly head…the plane that was to fly us to Charleston was wounded.  Leaking hydraulic fuel.  Mechanics were on site.  On board.  It took an hour or more to fix the problem.  When we landed in Charleston, the landing was hard.  I overhead a guy behind us say, “Guess they’ll need to fix another leak after that landing.”  Captain Boom came to mind.  Don’t know about Captain Boom?   Read my blog from Mexico!!

Rayman witnessed a woman being hauled off by the police.  She went nuclear about something…I missed the whole thing because I was on the phone with eBay with a question.  When I returned, Rayman was relieved.  He was told an older woman had freaked out and taken away by the police.  As he told the woman sitting next to him, “I was relieved because it wasn’t you.”  Then the woman asked us if we heard about the man with explosives on a plane out of Philly.  I said that was too much information for a day on which she was flying.   She agreed….aggressively.  Got the impression she wished she hadn’t turned that darn TV on.

When we arrived in Charleston, we reminisced about how the last time we were in this airport, the security people insisted on checking our suitcases.  And when I say checking, I mean spreading our dirty laundry all over the counter to inspect for, what?  Bombs?  Flammables in our underwear?  Anyway, we got a charge out of that line of thinking as we walked to the car rental counter where we encountered perhaps the most soft spoken man I have ever met.  A man who whispered in a southern drawl.  Quite captivating.  With cheaters poised on his forehead, he seduced us into buying gasoline.  Then it was on to the carousel to pick up the luggage and then out to the parking lot to get into the rental car so we could immediately get lost.  It WAS NOT OUR FAULT.  There were no signs to identify street names.  This led us to almost tossing ourselves into a big ditch while maneuvering the car to turn left.  No cones.  No warning lights.  These people in N.C. need to take a course on street signs…how to use them effectively.

I had booked ourselves into a Marriott…Courtyard.  From the road, we could see a big Marriott…seeing it and actually getting to it was maddening.  And then, they told us we were at the wrong hotel.  Luckily the right hotel was just down the street.  Both Marriotts did an outstanding job of hiding their reception desk.  It took us two twirls around the first one to find it.  And the second one was almost as well hidden.  What’s up with that?  Finally, we arrived and I refused to leave the hotel to find food.  1.  We might never find our way back  2.  Drinking and driving was not desirous  3.  I was tired.  So, we ordered in and drank wine with our veggie sub and dark chocolate.  So…this is our first night in the deep south.  Tomorrow we are on to Savannah.  And I promise some pictures.

Oh, and they had our reservation here.  And the woman behind the desk could have been Ethel Lander’s sister.  A real look alike.  Don’t know Ethel?  You should.  She’s fabulous.

More later.  Rayman is sleeping and the light on the computer is too bright.  And I agree.  Nighty night. It’s 12:30 a.m. now.

Oh, and a disclaimer.  The picture at the top was taken in Sydney.  Didn’t take a picture today but I wanted to create some interest for my dedicated readers!!