Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

After a long and wonderful nap, Rhonda and I woke up ready to begin our exploration of the Northeast. Our first task was to figure out how to travel. Renting a car in Providence and returning it in Boston more than doubled our rental car expenses, so that option was out. Renting a car in Providence and returning it in Providence was a great idea, and cheaper than our Boston option, but Delta refused to change our departure tickets so that we could leave out of Providence instead of Boston. In then end, we came up with a rather convoluted, but workable, option.

At 10:47am we decided that we would catch a cab to the Providence Amtrak Station and take a train to Boston. The only problem we could see was the departure time of the train. It was scheduled to leave at 11:49am, and we hadn't even showered. This test of time proved to me that Rhonda and myself as a team are truly amazing. We managed to shower, get our makeup on, dry our hair, get dressed, repack our suitcases, catch a cab and ride to the station (which took about 20 minutes), find the train we needed to be on and buy tickets all with at least 10 minutes to spare before departure. Like I said, truly amazing!

The ride to the Amtrak station was interesting. We saw a couple of windmills, the Capitol building and weren't even scared of the cabbie's driving. We purchased our tickets for the train journey for $7.50 each and we were on our way.







We got off the train at the Boston South Station. It didn't take us long to find the place to buy our tickets for the bus that would take us from South Station to Boston Logan Airport. We bought our $2 Charlie Card that would allow us to take the Silver Line bus to Logan and went down to the waiting area.



It only took a few minutes for the bus to arrive and we were off to the airport. We jumped off the bus and saw the Budget Rental Car shuttle getting ready to leave. The driver saw us and stopped to let us on and after a couple of stops, took us to our car. I somehow managed to register for their FastTrak program, so the keys were in the car waiting for us. All we had to do was load up and go. They upgraded us to a Saturn Vue. It was cute, but by the time we made it to the Cape I was wishing for a bigger engine!



Speaking of Boston traffic... That was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It was crowded, but not ridiculously so. The traffic seemed to be moving along pretty well, but, for some reason, people would slam on their brakes and slow down unexpectedly. Neither Rhonda nor I ever saw the reason for all of these slowdowns, but they were annoying. We finally made it to the Sagamore Bridge that put us officially on the Cape.



Another thing that surprised this pair of Southern girls was the lack of scenery on Highway 6. My advice to anyone traveling into Cape Cod is this: Take Highway 6A. There is a lot more to see...

This map shows a total layout of our travels while we were in the Cape.


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It's TRAVEL TIME!

I ran around like a crazy woman all day trying to get everything "just so" for my trip. I wanted to have the house totally clean so that mom and David wouldn't have to worry with that. I wanted to have all of the laundry done and clothing matched up for the girls so that David wouldn't, in Katie's words, "dress them funny". I wanted to have groceries in the fridge, the GPS loaded with caches in Massachusetts, a new travel playlist on my iPhone, the carseats cleaned out, the confirmations for all of our hotels printed, my hair fixed, my clothes that still fit packed, my carry-on loaded with interesting reading material and my boarding passes printed and ready to go.

I accomplished about 75% of the things above, and the rest I just had to let go... The house WAS mostly clean, but not perfect. I did get the clothes picked out, so that was good. There were a few things to eat, so they probably wouldn't starve. I got my GPS mostly loaded. The iPhone playlists didn't happen, but that's OK because I managed to forget my phone charger, anyway, and couldn't waste the battery power listening to music on the plane. The carseats were filthy, but still installed and safe. We had hotel confirmations, but because of later events we didn't need the first one after all. I had NO good reading material, which sucked. You can only read the Sky Magazine on a Delta flight so many times before you totally lose it!

I had my boarding pass in hand when I got to the airport and was ready to roll. After a lot of praying and some good advice from a few friends I was feeling better about leaving the kids. I made it throught security without a problem, got a sandwich, called Rhonda to confirm that she was at her gate at XNA and got on my plane. We made it to the runway right on time, and then we STOPPED. Right on the runway. It turns out there was a ground stop in Atlanta. I had never heard of a 'ground stop', but this is the definition that Google returned.

GROUND STOP: The affected airport's acceptance rate has been reduced to zero. Flights that are destined to the affected airport are held at their departure point for the duration of the Ground Stop.

The ground stop essentially meant that no planes were being allowed to land because of bad weather. This was bad news for Rhonda and me. I had 54 minutes to make our connection and she had 62. Our flight to Boston was scheduled to leave Atlanta at 9:20pm. We both left our initial airports with the hope that the ground stop would delay our connecting flight. No such luck. I RAN the minute I got off my plane. I don't mean in that attractive TV commercial way. No, I mean I RAN. I arrived at the gate, sweating and panting, as they were closing the flight. I asked the gate agent if there was any way to hold the plane for Rhonda, who was on the ground but not in the correct terminal yet, and she just flatly told me "NO". I could either get on the plane without Rhonda or miss the flight. I chose to miss the flight. Travel woes are always more fun when they're shared!

I went to the Delta Airlines service desk and waited for Rhonda. I noticed that there was a flight to Providence, Rhode Island, that was scheduled to leave in 20 minutes. Providence is about the same distance as Boston from Eastham, Massachusetts, which was our final destination. I briefly discussed it with Rhonda and we decided to go to Providence. The friendly agent at the Delta desk happily accommodated us and we were on our way. We got to the gate with plenty of time and even managed to get a woman to trade with us so that we could sit together.

It was an uneventful flight, thank goodness! We made it to Providence around 11:35pm and talked to David. My darling husband was able to cancel our hotel in Boston and book us a room in Providence while we were on the flight. I love him for that! We called the hotel and they sent a shuttle over for us. We were so glad to see our beds! Poor Rhonda had been up a total of 21 hours by the time we got to our room. She dove into her bed and didn't make another sound until the next morning. I stayed up for a little while trying to figure out how to get our rental car situation worked out (we were supposed to pick it up in Boston), but had to crash soon after Rhonda. I was exhausted!

I'm off to CAPE COD!

Well, the day has finally come. At 3:30pm I will be leaving home and heading to the airport in Little Rock. From there I will be taking a plane to Atlanta to meet up with my girlfriend, Rhonda, and then we're off to Boston! I've never been to New England, so it should be exciting! I just know they're all going to love our Southern accents! We will stay in Boston tonight, but we'll head on down to the Cape Thursday morning. I just know it's going to be beautiful. I love the ocean, even though I rarely get to see it without having to chase a kid or two out of the water/sand/riptides, you name it! Being able to take a walk on the beach and explore on my own will be nice.

This trip almost got cancelled. So many bad things happened that seemed to be "signs" that I shouldn't go. First, David got a true scare about being laid off from work. Next, my traveling partner had a bad mammogram, a real cancer scare. Third, I broke my toe. The list just keeps going and going. Both Rhonda and I felt like we were being warned not to go. After a while, we just decided to cancel, but for some reason I didn't cancel the plane tickets or the hotel rooms right away.

It turned out that ALL of the bad things that happened resolved themselves in a positive manner. David was assigned to a new project. Rhonda's biopsy was totally clean. My toe, although still sore, is healing. Everything just sort of fell together in the right way. After seeing all of this, Rhonda and I made the decision (less than a week ago!) to go ahead with our trip.

There is one downside to our decision. I am a truly neurotic mother. I am so worried about leaving my kids for the next five days! What in the world will they do without me?!?!? Probably have a GREAT time hanging out with their Nana and their Daddy, but you know, it's hard to let go!

I often find myself having a difficult time walking away from my children, even though I really need a break! Letting them ride with other people scares me to death. They all drive CRAZY! Going to the beach scares me, too. There are riptides and jellyfish!

I am one of those mothers that is a big fat scaredy cat. I HATE having my children out of my sight. I need to trust God more. I know the world can be a big scary place and because of my fear my kids are starting to become fearful and that is something I do not want. I want them to be smart and aware, but not fearful. I need to trust God to take care of my kids.

I've been praying for knowledge, trust, and peace on this and studying my bible a bit, and I came across a few Bible verses that I liked. I hope I will be able to rely on the promises they offer and be at peace about this trip.

"When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" (Psalm 56:3-4). God will take care of our children. He is infinitely stronger than mere man.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). God tells us He will be there for us as we mother our children, he will be with our children when they are out of eyeshot. He will be our children's constant companion.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34). As mothers, we often fret about our children's future, yet God holds their future just as he holds the future of the world.

I am trying to be strong about leaving on this trip. I am SO looking forward to time with Rhonda and exploring a new place. I am trying to focus on that and not the neurotic things that keep running through my mind. "What if they're in a car wreck while I'm gone and they're injured or killed?", "What if I'M in a car wreck while I'm gone and I'M injured or killed?", "What if my plane crashes?", "What if they get sick and need me?"... All of these things keep popping into my head and I HAVE GOT to let them go!

Pray for me while I'm on this journey. Pray for my kids, too!