We got to the airport with no difficulty after the hour and 30 minute
drive. Raleigh-Durham was a nice small airport, easy to get around
in. We checked Joya's bags and got her boarding passes for her
flights. She was traveling first to Chicago, then changing planes and
going from there to Sacramento. It was the change of planes in Chicago
that worried us -- that is a humongous airport, and she had only a bit over 30
minutes between published landing and take-off times.
After not-too tearful goodbyes, we waited nearly a half hour to see her plane
take off, only to discover that it was already in the air, having taken another
runway. Disappointing.
There were phones all over this airport with laptop jacks sticking out of
them, so I got the computer and tried 2 of these fancy "AT&T Public
Phone 2000"s. Neither would talk to my computer (Jordan though that
perhaps if we found a "Public Phone 2001" it would work). We
were just about to go find a Kinko's when Jody saw a simpler "Public Phone
1000" with a jack, and said 'one more try'. Third time is the charm,
and we spent nearly an hour online, up and downloading email, and updating the
web site. We had been there long enough that Joya should have already
taken off from Chicago, so we checked with a United ticket agent and begged her
to tell us 1) if Joya's plane took off on time, and 2) if she was actually
on that place. After lots of clucking and clicking (from her keyboard),
she finally said "yes and yes". We were relieved.
That done, we went off to find the famous Raleigh Farmers Market. This
was a huge Farmers Market, covering acres and operating 7 days a week.
This early in the season there were not acres of food, but we spent a good hour
looking, and stocking up on produce, bread and flowers. The woman from
whom we bought produce gave us cooking tips for the mustard greens in her thick
Carolina drawl -- all of which involved boiling, I believe. "Thank ye
fur tradin' with me" she said. The bread lady
was heavy, wearing a dress and bare feet. She sold her wares out of the
back of her beat up old station wagon. Her goods were expensive, but homemade, so we bought lots. We love bread.
Back at the trailer, we began missing Joya. She was to call us on the
cell phone if she missed her plane, and when she met up with the EnCompass folks
who were picking her up. She should have landed at about 5:20 PM our time,
and when she did not call by 6:00 Jody call SAC and had her paged. A very
pleasant young man from EnCompass named Jay picked up the page, and confirmed
that Joya's plane had not landed yet, and that they were all sitting around
waiting for her. About 30 minutes later, the phone chirped and informed us
we had a new voicemail. Damn thing had not completed her call. We
listened somewhat forlornly to Joya's cheerful voicemail message.
Jordan was resigned to 3 weeks of no fun, without her sister, since Jody and
I were less inclined to play with her as she liked. We promised to try to
fill in the gap there, and that was OK, but when she realized that she would be
sleeping in the rear of the trailer 'alone' (we would be sleeping 10 feet away,
in the front), that really set her off, and she cried hard for a while. To
comfort her, Jody went and read back in Joya's bed, and everyone ended up
falling asleep in that configuration.
April 16 - French Broad River