Accept that you’ll be tired. It’s the fighting it — the fooling yourself — that will have you frustrated. Or at least that’s the sentiment from my dad about long travel routes and the mindset I’m taking for my upcoming trek back to Wisconsin. My flight leaves Kona this afternoon and after routing through Los Angelos and then Chicago, I’ll (fingers crossed) land in Madison a little after 9:30 am CT time.
There’s nothing for it with these overnight legs and losing four hours with the time zone jump. I’m hoping I can get enough sleep on the last two legs that I can safely clear myself to drive the three hours from Madison to Door County. If not, at least my brother lives in Madison (and he’s traveling back with me today) and worst case I can crash at his place.
But with luck I’ll be back in my condo, with my cats, in the next . . . 26 hours from now? I planned to get back on Saturday so I would have a full day on Sunday to recover before going back to work. A day where I’m sure to need to get groceries and vacuum up two weeks of cat hair settling on the carpet.
While no one wants to be stuck on a plane for so long, I don’t mind it. It’s a good excuse to watch movies and TV. On the way here I watched season 2 of Jessica Jones and I have a couple of different options downloaded today: the Chris Pine Star Trek movie trilogy, the first few episodes of Luke Cage season 2, season 1 of My Hero Academia, the Andrew Garfield movie Tik, Tik…Boom! which I’ve yet to see. I think I’ll be alright.
And while I am sad to leave Hawaii . . . it is very nice here . . . I’m also grateful I don’t have the same sadness I used to feel on vacations: saying goodbye to my family for months. My parents will be home mid-next week and I’ll see my brother a couple of times in the next month. The end of vacation triggers that old ache that I have to remind myself isn’t true anymore, at least not when it comes to my immediate family. Despite going back to freezing temperatures, I’m still confident I’m where I’m supposed to be.
Plus, we’ll be back on the Big Island next year! My parents already have it booked, bless them.
With Love,
Natalie
That was a long trip