TRAVEL HERE: CLIMBING ABOARD OUR CRUISE
After all the difficulties Bill had faced trying to get out of town, our actual departure was fairly smooth. We left within 15 minutes of our targeted ETD. We miscalculated where the HOV lane would dump us, but even going out of our way in downtown Dallas, the traffic was so bad on I-30 we made time with our mistake. About 11, we exited at a rest stop to use the facilities and change drivers. By 2, we were at the cruise terminal, but so were a whole lot of other people.
Not Exactly a Tourist Destination
I want you to know that Galveston is a wonderful place to visit, but you wouldn’t know that from a picture of their port. It is an industrial port with a couple of cruise ships thrown in for good measure. What can I say? It’s ugly!
We dropped our bag off at the terminal and made our way to the parking lot. (Yes, that was a singular bag! I got everything in one suitcase!) We’d saved $5 by booking online (Thank you, Sherry!) We needed to be on board by 3:30 and I hadn’t been worried when we got to the terminal, but the parking lot made me nervous. I don’t even think a hurricane would have lit a fire under these people, but we did make the deadline.
Going Through Security
I understand the need for security measures, but I hate it. You’re passing around important documentation and taking valuable items out of your carry-on, not to mention dressing and undressing. When I’m flying, I try to dress around the metal detectors, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t even think about going through a metal detector to get on board the cruise. Maybe that’s why I had on a metal belt and shoes with metal decorations on them. I took off the offending accessories and tried again. That time my sunglasses set it off.
I went through all the rigmarole of getting dressed again and headed for check-in. Suddenly, I needed my glasses and I couldn’t find them. This would cause a panic in any situation, but if you read my blog last week, then you know why the disappearance of my glasses made me absolutely frantic. I ran through the terminal back to the place where I re-dressed. I made the people at the metal detector and x-ray machine prove my sunglasses weren’t there. I felt tears brimming in my eyes.
I ran back to the pile I’d left next to Bill and started rifling through my backpack again. Bill wasn’t happy. At the moment he was more interested in checking in, but if I had lost my new prescription sunglasses, he was going to be even more unhappy. Sitting in the floor, dumping everything out of the backpack I did find the glasses, but by then I was already suffering heart palpitations. It would take me awhile to get back to normal and before that could happen, I would misplace another pair of glasses.
But enough about my glasses, lets go have lunch.
jane sadek 