Many who know me know that I journal religiously. I’ve found that it’s the most effective way for me to process my thoughts & feelings & experiences.
“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”
(Flannery O’Connor)
I type (shout out to the app “Diarly”), making it much less time consuming & much more doable. Ever since I started in December 2019, I haven’t missed a day & plan to continue until, maybe…the day I die. We shall see.
The other day I was journaling about my travel day & thought it would be fun to post it as a blog!! Consider yourself lucky because I don’t let people read my journal often. Now, you can get a glimpse at what a travel day looks like from my inside my head. Travel days are monthly, if not more, & can be challenging, long, exhausting & complicated. At the same time, they are often exciting & we make tons of really fun memories. I’ve grown to like travel days a lot actually, but it definitely depends on the person you ask.
May 4, 2022 (Travel Day from Costa Rica to Dominican Republic)
The alarm woke me up at 2:30, 2 hours after I fell asleep. In a blur, I got dressed into a frumpy airport outfit including jeans (they are heavy & flying requires us to be weight conscious for the first time since leaving the US of A, otherwise jeans would not be my airport travel day choice). Everyone wandered around like those people on Divergent who get mind controlled by the government, & packed & dragged our big-packs-in-airporters to the vans awaiting us outside.
The middle-of-the-night/early morning ride to the airport is all too familiar, as I have done it many times in the past 2 & a half years. Many times. And it is beautiful each time. Those star-like lights of the city will never get old. Traveling in a large group is the very big difference from all of the other times, especially when I am responsible in part for leading the day as a logistics coordinator.
We dragged our luggage in, tried to do the self check-in as directed, but quickly realized it wouldn’t accommodate our specific large group tickets so we stood in line. I told Amanda some specific memories from that airport, including the one where me & Gwyn struggled to maneuver our 3 full & very heavy suitcases while trying to manage the grief of our gap year ending (& all of the premature goodbyes we’d just said) & the fear of an unknown virus that we were just realizing was real. Checking in went smoothly for everyone and I was proud of N-Squad’s packing effort – not one bag was overweight yayyy.
Next obstacle was security which also had no complications. Now, we were through to the gates, we set all of our stuff down, & our (new) treasurers handed out our travel day money. Side note: $10 is not enough for 3 meals in an airport. But, alas, that is all we have to work with. We dispersed to find food & coffee for an early breakfast. I always find that when I wake up really early, I am SO hungry by like 5am haha. Me & Amanda found a coffee/breakfast place & spent more than our budget for the day, on that meal. Oh well. At least, at this point in the year, we have some money in our personal accounts to cover the rest.
We chilled at the gate for the rest of the waiting time. Eventually it was time to board our flight & I was in a row with Ericka & Em!! Ayeeee my GIRLS.
Took off at 8:30. It was pretty short to Panama & I just listened to music for the whole of it, & ate the provided snacks of course. This was my first time on Copa Airlines. We landed in the Panama City airport & I bought a veggie wrap & got on wifi. It wasn’t a super long layover so we were soon on another flight. It actually took a bit for us to take off, & I read my book (The Great Alone is SO GOOD), then ate, then listened to a podcast by JP. After that, I listened to music & watched out the window until we landed in the Dominican Republic. Dozed off some because MAN I was feeling the 2 hours of sleep last night.
The Dominican Republic looks so different. Things I noticed: baseball diamonds EVERYWHERE. Houses & structures are all gray cement. There are tons of palm trees sprinkled everywhere. The land just looks different than what I’ve seen in central America.
Landed & got off. The airport was nicer than I expected…more of a San José vibe than San Pedro Sula. Customs & bag claim & bag checks went perfectly & quickly & that was our easiest country entry to date. A guy was outside with a sign that said “Hope” & we assumed it meant “Mission of Hope.” Hahaha sketchy but it worked out. He started driving & my eyes were glued to the absolutely stunning landscape. The water was a blue I have never seen & Santo Domingo was just different (a lot more built up) than I’d expected. From the little bit I heard, the Spanish is specific & so different. I told Amanda, my loyal bus buddy, the connections to the Dominican through Sarah & Ryan & Lauren & Tyler & Craig…how I’ve heard so many stories from them & now get to see it.
We realized this bus ride would be a while, & me & Amanda got settled in our long-bus-ride tradition. Pillow on the lap, water bottle holding up the phone, a movie (today it was “The Prince and Me”) & a snack between us. Hahaha we’ve gotten so good at it. The defining factor of this drive was thirst hahaha. Didn’t plan ahead in that area & hadn’t drank much water all day as it cost an arm & a leg in airports. Watched maybe half of the movie but both got so sleepy & turned it off. I didn’t want to sleep & put my AirPods back in & listened to music the rest of the time (2 1/2 hour trip).
It got dark & I dozed off a little bit at the end but, around 7:30 we arrived at Mission of Hope Dominican Republic. Our first impression was “the walmart version of Reap Granada” hahaha. The room is TINY & all 11 of us are in it & the bathroom is quite interesting. It’s not even really a separate room…more like blocked off. One sink & 2 stalls (with curtains) & 2 showers.
They had dinner prepared for us & man, I have become a more thankful person on this race. Just that there was food, spaghetti & salad, ready for us was a true blessing. You just never know what you are going to pull up to. They were so welcoming and told us we’d get a slew of information tomorrow, & gave us what we needed to know & told us to enjoy the night.
Gap G told us about the water cooler that constantly had ice cold water in it & it did not disappoint. Quenched the thirst of the long day without much water intake. Plus, ice water is just a game changer. It’s pretty unheard of out here on the race.
Utter exhaustion. The only thought was “get to my bed.” I didn’t unpack & pulled out only what I needed. Everyone did the same & we talked in the room about our impression & how this nomad life feels more normal this time. A bit easier to make this change, walk into the absolute unknown & even do this travel day because it’s just become a normal. Took a cold, but refreshing shower. Climbed into Amanda’s smaller-than-a-twin bed & watched the remainder of our movie.
Moved up to my mosquito-net-covered top bunk. Feel much more at peace than I usually do in a completely new place. It helps that everyone (including Amanda & Ericka) are here. Nice to have all squad month right as we changed teams.
That concludes this entry. I hope that was enjoyable & you have a better picture of what a travel day is like!!
Loved hearing about your traveling adventure! I read The Great Alone about 4 years ago and loved it. Kristin Hannah has some other good ones! Love you Sweetheart!
Thank you for sharing. Praying for safety and blessings as you minister to the people of the island.
Hi Sweet Liz! This was so sweet….I loved getting in your head for a travel day! So glad that everything went as smoothly as can be expected….it must be that stellar logistics team. Love you Liz!