We went back to North Carolina on July 8th.  It was sort of a stormy morning and we got an early start so we could get breakfast somewhere.  I get really bitchy and irritable when I’m hungry and sometimes when you’re traveling, it’s not so easy to fuel up.  We dropped off the car at the rental place, then went to the terminal, where we breezed through security and picked up gross breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin’ Donuts.  In retrospect, I should have gotten donuts.  They would have tasted better and probably been just as bad for me.

As we were waiting in line, I noticed the woman standing in front of us…

I actually thought she looked nice enough… it was the shoes that gave me pause.  I can’t imagine walking around in those heels with those platforms.  Ouch!  I posted the photo on Facebook and there were many comments.  One friend said she liked what the woman behind her was wearing… with the crocheted cuffs on her pants.

Our flight to Atlanta was quite nice.  We actually got there ten or fifteen minutes early and we had a nice lady sitting next to us.  She was pleasant to talk to and appreciated Bill’s chivalrous offer to put her stuff in the bin for her.  Then we spent about an hour in Atlanta and ate some gross Pizza Hut pizza for lunch.  I was reminded of when ATL was our home airport.  It’s huge and obnoxious, but you can get anywhere from there.

The flight from Atlanta to Raleigh was a lot shorter, but very annoying.  We sat in an exit row, which has different seats that have fixed armrests and no windows.  And you’re kind of sitting out in the middle, so the flight attendants can bug you.  One of them insisted that I put my purse in an overhead bin on takeoff, but didn’t notice my iPad, which was under my seat.  Then, as we were about to land, another flight attendant insisted that I stow the iPad.  I know they have rules and shit, but it would be nice if they were consistent.  I’m afraid the second flight attendant got one of my trademark dirty looks.  I should probably try to restrain myself from being bitchy to flight attendants, but I have little patience for airline travel.  I have a feeling she wouldn’t have said anything to me if it weren’t for the first flight attendant getting on my case about the purse.  Incidentally, when I’m not in an exit row, no one ever gives me shit about these things.

Also, the flight attendant who got on my case the second time spent a good portion of the flight chatting with a male employee who happened to be flying on that leg.  The whole time we were taking off, they were talking shop loudly enough that everybody around them had to listen to their chatter.  It’s not that I don’t think flight attendants have a right to socialize, but I don’t think they had much situational awareness.  I will note that the flight attendant in question looked very professional and was very perky.  She made one guy smile by offering to hang his jacket for him, which I thought was nice.

Bill was all upset because he wanted to go get the dogs from the pet resort, but it was taking forever to get the bags and then the bus to the parking lot took a long time to get to us.  And when it finally did, there were a whole lot of people waiting to get on and the bus driver was being really bitchy and yelling at people to stow their bags and sit down.  But there wasn’t enough room to sit, so Bill and I stood and got off at the first stop…

Incidentally, we saw this on our way out of RDU on July 1st…

Welcome to the Bible Belt…Anyway, I feel certain that I’ll be wishing for a plane ticket on our upcoming 1300 mile road trip.  On the other hand, I hate flying.  I tolerate it because it’s the only way I can see certain places and it’s a lot faster and probably even cheaper than driving sometimes.