June 23 and 24th 2017

June 23 and June 24

I woke early enough to walk to station I will be meeting the driver I booked for a small group tour to see Rosslyn Chapel and Melrose Abby…there were 10 other people on a luxury van. Before we left I bought a croissant to eat while waiting. Since there was no room in cafe to sit I took my food outside to set on step. I sat there with the pigeons and fed them too.

The tour took about 6 hours but was very enjoyable. We seen the chapel and abby plus the artist rendition statue of william wallace. The driver gave us a lot of history of william wallace that I found very interesting. When we got to Edinburgh I rushed to a shop I needed to get to before they closed….I made it in time…I went on back to my room so I could pack for my flight the next morning.
June 24

Since my flight was not til the evening I knew I didn’t have to worry about getting up too early but I still had to check out fairly early. So I packed all my stuff…I bought an extra bag …overnight bag like…. so and I paid for a checkin…that leaves me with 1 rolling suitcase, cinch sack and an overnight bag….needless to say I was loaded. ….all were heavy, plus the recent purchase I made was not going to fit due to size in any of the cases so I had to carry them in the plastic bag.

I decided to go on to Waverly Mall with my stuff so I can look around till time to go to airport. It was bitter cold so I flagged a taxi to take me there….I got out of taxi and a woman said, I think you left a bag in there.,” my brain wasn’t thinking I said I didn’t think so …I went into the mall dragging all my suitcases and grabbed a bite to eat….all of a sudden I realized the plastic bag was gone. I hd left it in the taxi…I go to a taxi driver and asked how would I find out…he gave me number to call and they put it out over the radio…luckily they called back but phone wasn’t letting me answer…I tried a dozen different ways. I called back the taxi office and they gave me the correct way to dial it. When I talked to driver he agreed bring it back. While I was heading back to the stop to meet him, the wheel on my rolling bag fell off…so here Im dragging suitcase down the sidewalk (probably sparks coming out from the dragging) but I was able to retrieve package. I hopped bus and went to airport. I had about 2 hours or so to wait but that was ok…better late than to miss.

As I was boarding into the gate

..an attendent told another guy…here is another one and I was pulled inside an area where they were being searched….geez…here we go again….a woman and 2 men took me to a room and she padded me down while they went through my bags….as if my pink polka dotted new overnight bag would be carrying a bomb….they just don’t know how long it took me to get it packed….I helped them out, opened zippers….they asked if I wanted to pack it back….I said, “no, you can go right ahead…don’t squash the cookies, be careful with the camera…” and off I went.

For normal people thats all there would need to be…correct….nope…Landing in newark new jersey…grabbed an airport trolley to wheel my pegleg suitcase thru customs…sure enough Im almost home free I get pulled to a backroom!!!!!does my pink polka dot scream terrorist…or how about my pink shirt and university jogging pants….
He takes me to the side asks what food I have in bags…shortbread cookies is all…he asked a bunch of questions then asked how am I getting to TN from here…I said I was just going wait it out here in airport since its late and departure is early…”Oh no, this airport closes you cant stay here…..” are you serious?…he starts givimg me names of hotels and said there was one across street..WHATEVER!

I go out to the front of the airport and the last taxi leaves before I could get one. I asked the police officer standing in front how I could get taxi…he said, “they would be back in a half an hour.” I told him I was walking to that hotel and I was taking the airport cart with me!! He looked at me with this blank look and said….”ok….” I think he was scared to say no.

So here I go walking at night in Newburgh Ny with an airport trolley…looking like a bag lady. The hotel was a lot farther off than it looked…a lot farther…So here I wheel my trolley into the hotel…the look on the face of the desk clerk said it all…the hotel costed more for 1 night than 5 days in any of the countries I just came from….it was nice though…