Today was a very early morning for me – I woke up at 3:30 AM to get ready and catch the airporter bus that left at 4:25 AM, arriving at SFO at five. Luckily, at that time in the morning it was very easy to get my bag checked, get through security, and find my gate. Since I was early, I walked around several of the concourses getting my steps in, knowing I was going to be sitting on planes for 5 to 6 hours. The first leg of my journey to Denver got in early, which was helpful because I had to go from the end of one concourse all the way to the opposite end of a different concourse – Denver is a huge airport! The flight from Denver to Cody was in a much smaller plane, I think it only seats about 50, only two seats per row on each side of the aisle. I had to laugh when the guy next to me complained that he didn’t like our seats as they were the ones that backed up to the bathroom and he couldn’t recline his chair. I commented that it was a pretty short flight, only about an hour and a half, so I didn’t mind. He said that he had just gotten off a long flight and really wanted to be able to stretch his legs, so of course I asked him where he had flown from. ‘Chicago’, he replied ‘the flight was almost 3 hours!’ I had to stifle a laugh, I was thinking that my flight from San Francisco was a short one and it was 3 1/2 hours. I guess it’s all relative. After so many years of flying to and from New Zealand, any flight less than six hours seems like a short one to me. As soon as I stepped off the plane and Cody I had to take off layers as it was a lovely sunny, warm spring day! Well, warm for Cody that is, it was about 60°. Unlike SFO, there is nobody patrolling the passenger drop off and pick up area. In fact most people just park their cars in front of the airport and walk in to meet their passengers! There is one parking lot for both short and long-term parking, and it’s completely free of charge. I headed outside and found the car that had been left for me by the retreat center directors, got the keys from under the mat and drove the short distance to the retreat center.
One of the directors, Rob, met me when I arrived and showed me where I was going to be staying, and familiarizing me with how the lights and heating work, etc. We caught up a little bit about their expanding family and what had been happening over the last year since I was last there. His wife Rebekah, the other director, wasn’t feeling well so I’m going to catch up with her tomorrow. When I commented on the gorgeous weather, Rob recommended I take advantage of it now as it was supposed to get colder the next day with a chance of snow and there was definitely snow forecast for next week. I took his advice and headed to my favorite spot at the retreat center – the labyrinth. It was absolute heaven to slowly wind my way around it, feeling the sun on my back and enjoy the rhythmic movement around into the center of the labyrinth and then back out again. After that, I headed towards the mountain behind the retreat center, seeing a couple of bunny rabbits in the yard on the way to the trail. I didn’t feel like going all the way up the mountain as I still needed to go grocery shopping and hadn’t really had much in the way of lunch. But I wanted to get up to have a look around. It is very, very brown as it is high desert country and there hasn’t been much snow so far this winter. In the distance, I could see snow on the higher peaks. It was so peaceful reveling in the view in front of me. I made my way down, then headed to the local Albertson’s to stock up on food. I laughed seeing that the Huey Lewis and the News cassette tape was still in the car. Later, Rob came over with Abigail their daughter – she is now three years old and has sprouted up quite a bit since I saw her last year. She is also very talkative now! Her sentences are much more complex than last year and she has tons of questions. She is a happy kid. I’m excited to get to spend time with her and also get to know their baby John. It sounds like he is much more easy-going than his big sister, I’m sure they’re very grateful for that. That night I spent time working on my gap year guide, made dinner and am now ready to hit the hay – it has been a long, busy day. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
