At some point, long after the inertial pressure of rapid acceleration has subsided and you have felt the familiar bump of wheels retracting into the fuselage below you…sometime after electronic devices everywhere around you are employed with various movies, games , novels and music, you begin to get the sense that you aren’t going to die on this particular flight.  It happens at different times on different flights, but a comfort sets in.  It’s a comfort that allows one to enter a torpor that might be called aestivation if we were all desert tortoises.  In fact, on most flights, most people do retreat into their shells so maybe that’s a good word for what happens when half the population of any particular metallic tube hurtling through the sky goes dormant…and that would be the half that had to awaken at 3:30 to board the flight on time.
Going fishing is the only reason anybody should ever have to get up at 3:30 am and all flights, domestic and international should be scheduled such that no matter how far one lives from the nearest airport, s/he can still get up at a civilized hour, have a quiet cup of coffee and read for a while, and then have a leisurely light breakfast before heading out to fly.  If that were the case, and people could begin their flying day better rested and more alert I’m sure that far fewer folks would walk out of the wrong side of the terminal at their destination.  Getting up later would actually end up saving time for these weary travelers because walking out of the wrong side of the terminal causes one to pace about frantically for quite some time looking for a Car Rental Shuttle Stop that doesn’t actually exist on that side of the terminal.  And I’m sure it would save embarrassment for those who had actually arrived at this destination many times in the past and had never walked out of the wrong side of the terminal before.  Write your congressman on this matter, please!
Fortunately, nice shuttle drivers in the passenger “drop off” area understand what must be a frequent occurrence and sometimes allow these dazed and confused travelers to ride their vehicle around the terminal to the side where shuttles actually take people to the car rental facility, some 5 miles away from the airport.
Sunshine and fresh air have a magical effect however, and even the weariest tend to respond to these stimuli; especially those from the cloudy and foggy valleys of Oregon which is a category that includes this particular traveler. After a nice hike at Picacho Peak State Park,  Gary Dawson Designs has arrived at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
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