Getting back into Travel Mode

When I got into flight booking mode booked my trip to Thailand back in May, I knew it was going to take me a day or so to get there.

Well, more than a day.

As the trip grew closer, the length of the actual time in transit began to hit me. According to my (inaccurate) United itinerary, I had three flights, starting with an 8 a.m. departure from Las Vegas to San Francisco. Then, I had a flight from SFO to Bangkok, an overnight at that airport, and then an early morning flight to Chiang Mai.

I left on Sept. 1 and arrived on Sept. 3.

No biggie.

I could hardly sleep the night before the trip. The excitement pumping through my body kept me wide-awake and oh-so anxious to get the trip started.

When my best friend, Kyla, called me at 5:15 a.m. saying she was outside, I was by no means ready to leave.

“Crap,” I said into my phone to her. “Can you give me a few minutes? I’m not ready.”

Then, it was a mad dash. Get dressed. Brush. Wash. Last-minute tidying up for my friend who was house/cat-sitting while I was gone. I glanced over to my backpack, ready to strap it back on after a year of it being dormant.

It’s too full.

Unzip. Unpack. Re-evaluation.

I ditched everything. Well, almost everything.

Re-zip. Strap to my back. Last look over the place to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything.

Goodbye to the cats.

Bye, Vegas.

I jumped into Kyla’s car with far too much energy for pre-sunrise and headed to McCarran.

While I was sitting at the gate, waiting (im)patiently to start my journey, a wave of inexplicable bliss washed over me.

It’s been far too long since I have had my passport stamped.

I popped open my laptop. It felt comforting … opening my little Netbook and logging in to the internet through Mozilla. Just like old long-term travel times.

The sun was just coming up, washing McCarran’s D terminal in a warming golden hue.

I turned on my computer, and the little icons from my RTW trip began to pop up. Skype loaded, it’s little orange alert popping into the right bottom corner of my screen.

And then, I was back on my previous adventure. Sitting in an airport. Waiting to catch a flight to my next destination.

The few days before embarking on my journey to Thailand had been a rush of emotions and memories. Memories I completely had forgotten — like my breakfast at the Frankfurt Airport en route to Maryland last year

After two hours of waiting, I finally boarded my first flight. Knowing damn well that the minute I stepped foot onto that airplane, my life was going to change.

At that moment, the two days of travel didn’t bother me.

I was ready to live again.