My RSS Feeds
colorado day 1: don't panic
My bus ticket was for Tuesday night, 7pm, which would’ve allowed plenty of time to get to Boston and get some sleep and get a leisurely brunch with Meg before we hit the airport for our 1:40pm Wednesday flight. But the forgotten keys meant that now it was 7am on Wednesday morning that I’d be getting on the Greyhound, praying the whole time that nothing was running late. We wanted to be at the airport by noon. The bus was supposed to arrive at 11:30. It should be okay.
It was, but only barely. First there were the subway delays, the L train just sitting there, one stop away from where I needed to be. I’d left early, but not early enough. It was 6:20am when I transferred to the 2/3 line, not 6:10 like I’d planned, and 6:30 when I walked into the Greyhound terminal. Still, I was calm, I could make it on the bus. Until I saw the automated ticketing machines were both down and the line was thirty people deep, with only two clerks slowly shuffling paper back and forth. I tried to think of a backup plan if I missed my bus and then my flight, but all I could think of was the hundreds of dollars already spent. At 6:45 I made it to the front and got my ticket and went down to the bus line, where at least a hundred and fifty people stood, waiting to get out of New York. It was the first bus of the day. I should’ve known. Another ten minutes of fruitless worrying about the day’s plans. But Greyhound ran four buses and I made it onto one, and onto the highway.
Meg met me at the station and everything went smoothly from then on. Maybe it was her. Maybe it was just being out of the city. We parked and got our tickets and got on the plane and nothing was delayed or broken. We transferred in Milwaukee and got coffee and met up with Kiara and got on a plane again, without incident. Two hours later we saw flat, flat plains underneath us. Three hours later we drove toward immense mountains overlooking our cabins. Four hours later we sat around a table eating burritos and drinking margaritas, letting the altitude amplify everything.
Tomorrow Wisconsin comes to town and the wedding fun begins. I'm a hanger-on, looking for nothing more than a place not covered in concrete.
(all boulder pictures by meg)
go to day two...