We left the house around 10:30 for our flights from Lincoln to Minneapolis, and from Minneapolis to Amsterdam.
At the airport in Lincoln, everything was very quiet (only about 20 people were on our flight), mostly because of July 4, and I assume because some things are still being slow with Covid. Wearing the mask all throughout the airport and flight was odd after several weeks of rarely wearing masks at all. But we got used to it again quite quickly. In Germany, Imke said, it’s all N-95 masks, and we have some of those, but for the duration of our travel, until Amsterdam, we were still wearing our comfy masks—we each have a favorite.
As per usual, I left the house behind spotless, the fridge and freezer almost empty, the sheets washed and put on this morning, and I even did some extra—organizing a couple of drawers in the kitchen that were driving me nuts. I know it’s overkill, but I can’t help it. As I explained to Kati (with whom I shared an image of the reorganized drawer because I knew she would appreciate it) it’s an extension of the “wear clean underwear in case you end up in the emergency room” rule. I always imagine something will happen on a trip—death, a major illness, something to keep me from coming home and make it necessary to have someone else take over at the house. And I want things to be left behind in the proper order for that person. Plus, the tremendous nervous energy that builds up before a trip is put to a better use than just fretting and futzing.
Nonetheless, we had our friend who will housesit for us take us to the airport at 10:30 for an 1: 17 pm flight (Delta, despite saying “come three hours early,” didn’t even have its counter open for another 20 minutes). There was a little bit of a hitch because it turns out we DID need to fill out a health form for the Netherlands, and we didn’t have it. But the very nice security guard at the Lincoln Customer Service counter printed the forms out for us, and we filled them out at the empty eating area and then had the salad and bread that I had brought for us for emptying-the-fridge purposes. The first flight was uneventful–but I am never relaxed until I am in flight across the Atlantic.