Day 0 of the 2003 Q3 random trip began with Brandy standing me up for dinner.  Well, almost standing me up.  I had just finished up at REI, where I had bought some camping supplies.  (That would be a new sleeping bag, a new frame pack, and a Topo CD for my Garmin GPS III+.)  Anyway, we had said we would meet for dinner.  We picked a place, she told me she would be near there and to call when I was close, and she's meet me there.  Well, I had called when I got off the turnpike and got her voice mail.  Then just as the clock zero I was walking into the chosen Macaroni Grill and I called her again.  Voice mail again.

I went ahead and got myself seated and got an iced tea and started eating the loaf of bread they brought.  I was pretty hungry.  I ended up calling and getting voicemail twice more over the next 15 minutes or so.  Finally I got her as she was checking out at the Barnes and Noble across the street.  Guess B&N was a cell dead zone or something.  I had been about ready to order without her!

But finally she was there, we ordered, we had dinner, we chatted awhile about various things, and then it was time to go.  Brandy headed off to wherever she was going after making me promise I would actually come back from Idaho.  As tempting as it is to entertain the idea of just staying in Idaho, I figure I will come back.

Once Brandy was gone, I headed to get gas.  But then as I was getting gas I started getting ancy, as I realized that I had not taken a picture of where we ate.  So I went back.

There.  Much better.

Then I headed home.  When I got home, feeling tired, I decided to just kick back and watch the news for a little bit before actually trying to be productive and do the things I needed to do for the evening.

After blowing off some time like that, I was getting pretty tired.

I knew though that it would be stupid to go to sleep.  I hadn't even started packing, and it wasn't just packing...  You see, I had just moved a couple weeks previously.  Some of the things I needed were in boxes in the basement.  But I had no freakin' clue WHICH boxes.  I was going to have to spend a lot of time searching for things I needed so I could unpack them for the purpose of repacking them!

I was pretty good about it.  I went through boxes systematically.  Poked inside to see if there was anything I needed, then reclosing the box and restacking them in a different part of the basement.  I was quite proud of myself.  When I was done the basement actually looked NEATER than it was when I started.

After several hours of this, I had assembled all sorts of things I needed to take with me.  In the background I was doing laundry.  I figured I had assembled most of the things I could until laundry was done, so I moved on to the other thing I desperately needed to do before leaving...

Which was to pay my bills.  After moving I had spent a LOT to get settled in the new place.  I needed to pay off all my outstanding bills and make sure I knew just how much cash I had available for the trip!  So I sat down and slogged through the big pile o' receipts and statements and bills, entering them into Quicken as I went...

As it turned out, I had enough money left to go to Idaho.  Whew!  Although...  I did expect after I got home to get slammed with a big AmEx bill for some of my house expenses.  But hey, worry about that when I get home.

So, after bills were done, the laundry was also done, so time for some more packing.  As I started to pack clothes, one of the first thing I noticed was the absense of one pair of shoes I wanted to take.  Oh no!  They must still be in boxes in the basement!  But I hadn't seen them when I went through the boxes earlier.  Hmmm.

Well, time was short now.  I decided to do another search of the boxes in the basement.  But this time I was not slow and systematic.  I started ripping through boxes and tossing stuff all over the place trying to look inside as many boxes as possible as quickly as possible.

I did not find the shoes.

I did however manage to turn an orderly pile of boxes into a huge disaster zone of boxes with items strewn left and right, and some boxes balanced precariously on others and tilted every which way.

Good Sam.  Good job.

I'd been doing so good at keeping the place neat too.  In my earlier search I had also moved some boxes away from the basement if everything in the box was for a specific room.  I didn't unpack them though.  No time.  So that had also made the top floors look a little messier, but at least there was a purpose.  Once I got home I could put that stuff away, as the boxes where now located where the stuff in them belonged.  But this little rampage in the basement served no purpose at all.

I didn't even find the shoes.

Anyway, I made do and grabbed some other pair of shoes.  I packed up the rest of the clothes, took a shower and such...  there would be no sleep tonight...  it was already almost time to leave...  and then I finally pakced up the computer and the last little gadgets and such.

I was ready to go.

So I hopped in the car, drove to Newark airport (stopping on the way at Burger King for coffee and a crossandwich cause I was falling asleep), parked, did the airport security thing, and got to my gate.  I considered taking pictures of some of those things.  But it is Newark airport.  It has been in most of my trip reports.  Everybody has seen it.  I am bored with it.  So no pictures of those parts this time.

So at my gate, thinking I had lots of time, I decided to get up and go to one of the restaurant and have a little snack.  I called Chad to make sure he was bringing his sleeping bag and such and talked to him a bit. 

Then I went back to the gate.  Oops!  Everybody had boarded already!  They hadn't closed it off yet, but I was close.  Oops.  That would have really sucked.  Anyway, I got on the plane.  In a few minutes, it took off and we were on our way.

As usual there were nice views.

But before long, I started reading a bit.  The current book on my pile is "The Machiavellian's Guide to Womanizing" by Nick Casanova.  This is a book that Rebecca gave me a couple years ago.  Har Har.  Anyway, reading the bits of it, I know it is supposed to be tongue and cheek and all, but...  Anyway, it has its amusing moments.  I'm not sure though that Rebecca's goal of it turning me into a Machiavellian Casanova is going to work.  :-)

Then after a few chapters (OK, about half the book, it was a quick read) I fell asleep.  I was exhausted, having been awake well over 24 hours at this point.  I got a little bit of fitfull uncomfortable sleep before the Captain came on and announced we were on final decent.

So.  Minneapolis.  Something like four hours in Minneapolis.  About two until Marilyn's plane would arrive.  Then longer until our plane to Boise would leave.  I had arrived in Terminal F.  Both Marilyn's flight from Pittsburgh and our flight to Boise were in Terminal C.  So I headed down there.  I passed Snoopy.

Once at the gate Marilyn's flight was supposed to arrive, I found myself a plug at a phone booth, and sat down to start a bit of the trip log.

I caught up with the present time.  Then there was nothing to do but go double check Marilyn's gate to make sure it hadn't changed, then wait for her to arrive.

As soon as I got up, I saw that Marilyn's plane was there.

And a few seconds later, there was Marilyn!

Marilyn:  Of course, Sam has a camera in hand and is taking a picture of me.  At least this time I am ready for him.  He better not get any shots of me when I first get up in the morning.

So Marilyn and I headed off to grab a quick coffee and we sat and chatted for awhile.  Before all that long it was time to go to our gate.

We went to the gate and asked to see if we get get new seats where we were next to each other.  The desk lady said that she would try.  Somehow despite a fairly full flight, about 10 minutes later she called us up and said she had done it. 

Right about this time though, Marilyn realized that she had lost her sunglasses.  She thought she might have left them on the last plane.  She started to panic.  She wanted to go run to her previous gate to see if they had found them.  I told her that they were going to start boarding any minute and we didn't have time.

Then she thought that perhaps the gate lady at our gate could help.  She went up.  The gate lady called the other gate to ask about the glasses.  They apparently had found them.  And she said Marilyn had time to run.  So Marilyn went running to get her glasses.

Then they started boarding.  Marilyn was not back.  Almost the whole plane boarded.  Just a few people left.  I was anxiously looking for Marilyn.  We were going to miss our plane!!

Then, out of the mist, doing her best OJ Simpson...  no, not the knife thing, the running through the airport thing...

And so we made it onto our plane.  Barely.

Marilyn:  I really wanted my sunglasses back since they are my favorite pair.  I was so glad that I the other plane had not left yet and I was able to retrieve them.  Boy, was I lucky or what?  Sam is going to make sure that I do not lose them again on the rest of the trip.  I was seriously booking it back to the gate since I knew that they plane to Boise would be leaving any minute now.  It is a good thing that the two gates were not too far away from each other.  I really would have been bummed if I lost my sunglasses.

The flight to Boise was relatively uneventful.  Marilyn and I looked at the skymall catalog for awhile.  Then we chatted a little.  Then I showed her a bunch on pictures of my mom's dog Sara from my computer until the battery ran out. 

Somewhere in the air on the way to Boise, Day 0 ended.

Marilyn:  Sara is adorable.  The pictures of her definitely were amusing especially the ones of her retrieving the stick out of the water.  It helped to pass the time and get my mind off a semi-bumpy flight.  I was starting to feel a little nauseous.  Though, I didn't feel the need to use my barf bag.  I am sure that Sam was happy about that.  Though, I could have really grossed him out if I wanted to.