The Rain in Spain... Glimpses From the Past - March 2005

Hi folks, well just got back from Spain.  It was quite an adventure!

Spain was cool and windy, but incredibly awesome.  I saw some beautiful horses at the show, saw some beautiful architecture in churches and fountains and ancient buildings, viewed gorgeous paintings and  sculpture in the Prado Museum in Madrid, toured the Rock of Gibraltar, picked up seashells as I walked the coastline of the Mediterranean, and ate some incredibly strange food.  I called it "Mystery Meat" and believed with all my heart that it was chicken... because I don't eat pork.... usually... except apparently in Spain. 

Unfortunately, I've been sick since before we landed in Spain, head cold and chest congestion and barely any voice. Didn't have to worry about trying to speak Spanish to anyone... I couldn't speak at all!

The adventure home began upon our departure from Madrid to New York.  In the airport, we discovered that the travel agent had booked us on two different flights. And mine was oversold. And I would be flown to London 3 hours later. And four hours after arriving in London I would be flown to New York.... and from New York (where I slept in the baggage claim for the 7 1/2 hour wait between flights) I would go to Salt Lake City.  In SLC I was unloaded from the plane due to equipment failure. At that point I just laughed.  I had realized that I had been traveling a long time when my 24
hour Dramamine had worn off already and I wasn't even in the USA yet!!!

I finally arrived in my nearly final destination 13 hours later than I had originally been scheduled to.  I slept in a real bed for the first time in days, finally ate something that didn't come pre-packaged in cellophane, and headed back home the next day. Then, I totalled my car hitting a guardrail. I was trying to come back, had just crossed the pass about 1 mile away from the mountain pass exit.Lost control on black ice, waited two hours for anyone to come from highway patrol with a shattered rear window and too afraid to turn the car on for warmth.

I'm okay except for whiplash and being incredibly sad that my dream car I will never see again... I did ask them to please take the license plates off and send them to me...