Preparing And Flight To Alabama

                         Friday May 15, 2015

Just a picture of Mallery at my mom's.

Mallery has always loved going to my mom's place too. My mom moved into a 55 and older apartment community four years ago, but because it still has all her smells, Mallery adapted very quickly to the move.

I was really nervous about leaving Mallery for my upcoming trip, so I took her everywhere with me before I left. The days before I left, were beautiful, and she really enjoyed car rides with the windows and moon roof open. Her nose was going back and forth from window to window to moon roof. She acted like she was at a all you can smell buffet.

On May 18, I was up and getting ready at 3:00 AM, and out the door with Joe at 4AM to pick up my mom and sister. Joe dropped us off at the airport and he headed back home to go to bed. Mom and Karen were flying United and I was flying American.

I said goodbye to them as they headed for their gate, and I continued to check in at the ticket desk.

At 6:05 my plane was getting ready to take off. Mom and Karen took off 15 minutes later.

Views of Dallas as we made our approach for my change over, to catch my next flight.

I had a couple hours wait in Dallas, giving me time for breakfast.

View as we got just above the clouds, as we took off from Dallas.

Soon we were above a sea of white clouds.

A mountain cloud off in the distance.

The clouds were just magnificent. I felt like I was in another world.

A world of giant cotton puffs!

My pictures don't even come close to the views I got up in the clouds. You just have to be up in the air to appreciate the beauty of that world. After 2 hours in the air, it was time to get our heads out of the clouds and back to reality.

As we flew through the clouds, we had some turbulence, and a really rough landing! Mom and Karen had a lay over in Chicago, and landed in Pensacola 20 minutes before me. I originally was going to fly out of Traverse City, MI., but because our contractor was so far behind in our remodel and we couldn't stay in Michigan, we changed my flight to leave from Cedar Rapids, IA instead. I wanted to fly with my mom and sister, but I was blessed to be able to change my flight from Traverse City to Cedar Rapids with no extra charges being incurred. I had bought my flight using miles, so everything was just exchanged as long as I flew American.

In Pensacola, we rented a car at the airport.The rental car didn't have a GPS, so I asked for a map. I always get lost in Pensacola. Karen was the navigator and I was the driver. We got lost so many times I lost count, and we ended up in downtown Pensacola. To un-frazzle our nerves and to calm our frustration, we parked the car and had some lunch at some food trucks.

Mom enjoyed a beer, because she didn't have any jobs to do but just enjoy the ride. It was 80 degrees out, so Karen and I couldn't figure out how she couldn't be hot with that black sweater on!

We arrived at our hotel at around 5PM. We had left the airport around 1PM, and the drive from Pensacola to Gulf Shores is only a hour drive. That tells you how lost we got! Alisha, Jamie and their kids came over shortly after we arrive, to go swimming.

My daughter Alisha and her two children, Noah and Maddie after their swim.

The next morning, it was up early again, as we had to be at my grandson's school by 8AM. Lennox spotted us in the crowd and waves.

Gulf Shores Elementary School has 7 to 8 kindergarten classes. Before the kindergartners graduated, they sang a few songs. Lennox is in the front row in the white t-shirt, if you watch the video below. I don't know why the video is sideways! The next video shows him getting his diploma.

After the program, we had donuts in the cafeteria, which was a good time to get a picture of Lennox and is mom, Tiffany my other daughter and his dad, Blake.

Lennox with his kindergartner teacher. To be continued: