WHEN DOES IT BECOME REAL?

Tom asked me today, "Is it real yet?" And the answer is: "No."

Ostensibly The Big Adventure has begun. Monday morning at "O'dark thirty" (according to Tom) or 3:30 am according to the alarm clock we arose, took up our luggage and in 38°weather were delivered by my daughter and her children to Port Columbus International airport. 6:44 am found Tom and Rebecca winging their way to Sacramento, California via LAX, Los Angeles. *Aside* 7:45 am found my requested cup of water sliding right off the airplane tray table into my lap. I hoped the less-than-absorbent airline blanket would catch and retain the liquid and for a couple minutes it seemed as though indeed it had. Then a trickle of cool down into my crotch told me that it was a good thing I had worn black leggings instead of jeans. We arrived at LAX at 8:44 am LA time to discover that although our stomachs told us it was lunchtime, lunch isn't served in the LA Airport until 11:00am. You can get pizza but you can't get a fresh salad. No matter, we didn't go hungry. *Aside* On the next leg of the journey from LAX to Sacramento across the aisle was a family of four traveling with a pet carrier. A pet carrier isn't unusual but it contained a bird. What makes a family decide to go anywhere, but especially on an airplane, with their bird? Tom said it could flap its wings to help the airplane get off the ground, but I'm pretty sure that's not the reason. And besides it was a small bird like a love bird or a small parrot. I don't think it would have helped much. Our pre-arranged Aloha Shuttle was waiting in Sacramento to wisk us off to Travis Air Force Base to check into the base hotel: a great room for only $60 a night. We quickly found our way around the base. We hoofed it over to the terminal (about 3 blocks) to let the Space A (Space Available) folks know that we were physically on base, "all present and accounted for," and found that there were no flights scheduled for Tuesday. However, a flight going to Okinawa, Japan via Hawaii is scheduled for Wednesday. We walked to the base BX and the Commissary which were about 4 long blocks further away than we first thought. We found the food court with delightful culinary choices (yes, there is a note of sarcasm here): O'Charley's, Taco Bell, Subway, Church's Chicken, Captain D's and Baskin Robbins. This was about the time we were getting "hangry" - that's when you're so hungry you're getting angry. *Aside* What I learned on the Air Force Base: 1) One always carries your military ID. I have one now that I'm married to a retired military guy and I'm supposed to have it in my pocket all the time, especially on base. Who knew? 2) Every day at 4:30 pm (well I guess that would 16:30 hours) our national anthem is broadcast across the entire base. Taps and reveille were no surprise. Tom tells me that this happens on every base, everywhere. 3) The washers and dryers in the base hotel are FREE. I wasn't even thinking about washing our two days worth of clothes until I found out it was free, but at that rate let's start with all clean clothes again. 4) When you don't have a car on base, you walk A LOT. Okay so we walked some in the airport, but I walked over 10 miles on Monday. My walking buddy on my phone told me it was the highest day EVER. Until today (Tuesday) when I walked fourteen miles. So we got a respite day Tuesday. We ate breakfast in the Mess Hall, but Tom says you can't call it the "Mess Hall" any more: it's the "Dining Facility". We went to the Travis Air Force Base Museum and back to the BX and the Commissary to buy all the stuff we realized we left home without but don't want to leave the country without.

On our walk back from dinner at the Delta Breeze Collocated Club (as I understand this used to be the Officer's Club) he asked the question: "Is it real yet?" And the answer is: "No." We are in California but we haven't done anything we haven't done before on vacation. The weather is better than Ohio (at least when we left) - warm and breezy - but I haven't even had a really great meal since I left Columbus, without which it can't be a really great vacation. So no, it's not real yet. If we go the Hawaii route, it may not even be real when we get there since we've been to Hawaii before. But we might be able to see "real" from there.