Indiana/Louisville

Flying to Louisville mid-morning is both good and bad. It’s good that you can wake up at a decent hour but the downside is that you arrive late. Not only that, the later in the day you flight, the greater the chance of being impacted by some sort of airline delay that happens in the country during the course of the day, particularly in winter. Such was the case for us on this occasion. In the end, our arrival was delayed by over an hour.

they kinda know their way around airports

We had warned family that it would likely be past midnight and discouraged anyone from meeting us. We would hop in our rental car and meet up with them the following day. Alas, our plans were foiled as we arrived at the rental counter to find no one there. In fact none of the offices were staffed. An airport employee told me that generally they close at midnight. That was news to me. The rental company never mentioned it. I’d even received a reminder of my rental from them just a few hours before showing up to find no one to provide us a car. Moreover, I worked in the car rental business for several years and any reservation that was tagged with an arrival flight number, we would wait for the plane to arrive. It made business sense since you would make more off the rental than you would spend on keeping the office open an hour or so later. 

In any case, we had no car and it was approaching 1am. We checked into Uber but that would have cost us $150. Finally, knowing that Priya’s mom was awake, we called to have her drive the half-hour or so to come pick us up. We felt bad but we had limited options.

* * *

Having made it to bed at 3am, the following day would begin rather slowly. Thankfully we didn’t have any urgent events to attend so we took it rather slowly. It wouldn’t last long given that Christmas was two days away and we need to finish up the necessary errands. Again, we hadn’t done the holidays like this previously so we needed to adjust accordingly. We would be in high gear for a couple days and then hopefully downshift after the 25^th.

That’s sort of how it went though I don’t think there was any downshift. One thing that makes a big difference is that, unlike in Idaho, we would be in the same bed each night. That lessens the stress considerably.

 

 

The weather was considerably mild. One day it was around 70F/21C and I was in shorts. As with Idaho, larger gatherings didn’t happen (though we would bend our own rules and attend a couple of large events). Christmas was low-key but very nice. We attended a couple of church services, one of which would definitely qualify as a large event. The other, definitely not. For the former we assumed there would be a number of anit-vaxers and masks would be in short supply so we took necessary precautions, sitting near the rafters and avoiding the thick lobby traffic. It wasn’t ideal but we apparently came out unscathed.

Christmas Eve

Over the course of the time that we were there, we went to the Speed Art Museum, to a play at the Derby Dinner (though Priya and I only had the dinner part) and a University of Louisville basketball game. We took the girls bowling (again, something I was unable to do) and the family all got together for a bridge walk over the Ohio River, something that was much more pleasant given the mild weather.  

Derby Dinner - A Christmas Story

Louisville v. Wake Forest

Living in Nairobi, we don’t have the pressure to shop before we return as much as we did when we were living in Bujumbura. We’re able to get more or less what we need. There were a few things that we needed to pick up, partly because they’re just cheaper, but it makes it easier not to have a dozen bags.

view of Louisville walking back to the car

Given the need for us to arrive in time for the girls to go to school on Monday, we opted to travel on Dec. 31. I’m not a big celebrator of New Year’s Eve so it didn’t matter to me that we’d be in the air as 2022 began. Given my inability to sleep on a plane, it guaranteed that I would be awake this year for a change. I will say that it’s a bit strange given that it wasn’t clear exactly when the new year began for us since the plane is moving in the opposite direction of the rotation of the planet. Also, it can depend on the route of the plane given that time zones bend in some places to accommodate the preferences of the respective populations. At one point I tried to figure it out where we were when it was our 12am. I came to the conclusion that we were likely over one of the most sparsely populated time zones of the Atlantic, GMT -2. Admittedly, unimportant information.

Early in the flight, the KLM attendants announced that it was midnight in the Netherlands. They took a moment to do a rather stilted waltz through the plane wearing New Year’s hats, they played a Dutch New Year’s song and later served champaign. An enjoyable moment of levity given that the Dutch aren’t really known to be that playful.

I think the real travel miracle, other than the fact that all the bags arrived, was that we made it at all. Apparently 2,500 flights were cancelled the day we traveled, mostly in the US, due to weather and Covid. The only such impact we experienced was that we were delayed at the outset trying to get out of Louisville due to staff shortages. There were gaps pretty much everywhere, from baggage handlers to the people that guide the planes in and out. Given how long we sat on the plane, the pilot announced that he was on the verge of allowing us to disembark until it got sorted out. Not long after that, however, the plane began to roll and we were on our way.

* * *

Now back in Nairobi, we had a day to adjust to jet lag a bit and unpack. The Kenyan summer weather is sunny and warm. The snow seems like a distant memory. Work and school beckon. Back to reality.