... Virginia to spend a couple of days with my brother and his sweet wife. I have not been in about a month, and do not talk to her much as I am reluctant to call and have her feel like she needs to answer if the timing is not good for conversing. She did call last week, and said she was getting second hand info. from other people and wanted to get it from the source.
I had written, to let her know about travel plans, inquiring to be sure the timing was ok. After first asking my supervisor at work for approval to take time off right before the upcoming busy retail weekend. I had the idea that I could get the retired Delta friend to get me another of the discounted tickets I traveled on during the last trip. But she was really discouraging, saying between a holiday weekend and a gazillion people on spring break it was Not a Good Time to Travel.So no Buddy Pass for me, but my plans were laid: I bought a ticket atfull price just to be certain I would get on the flight I wanted.
Uneventful trip, even though the instructions I printed indicated that getting to the airport two hours early would be wise due to construction chaos around the terminal. Which caused me to have much extra time on my hands and nearly finish one of the two books I brought as a diversion on my travels. Things went smoothly until arriving at my destination, when the travel arrangements went awry.
The family friend who has been so dependable about ferrying from the RIC failed to show, though we had made plans for her to pick me up upon arrival. After standing in a brisk wind for twenty minutes, getting thoroughly chilled as the temperature dropped precipitously, I checked my phone, found a missed call. She was stalled along the roadway with two flat tires.
Standing on the sidewalk looking at a row of yellow cabs, I decided to just take a taxi. Without giving myself time to consider how uneasy I felt the last time I was in a cab with a strange man many years ago. I know now I should have paused and allowed myself ample time to be equally unsettled today: he could speak or spell or read English. And as soon as he put the vehicle in gear, the doors locked and I was stuck. Though he seemed to be convinced that the GPS in his phone was the solution, he could not get the name of the street spelled right, which convinced me I was not in the right vehicle!
I finally persuaded him to unlock the door, so I could get out of his conveyance, after threatening to get my phone out to call the police. He was probably as annoyed as I was due to loosing a fare as well as his place in the taxi lineup. I was so freaked out when he expected me to put the address in his phone I did not want to go any place with a man who had not mastered the language. That was just 'way more stress than I needed in my life, so I moved on to plan B. Called the nephew and he came to take me to the house. Finally safely delivered to my destination.
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