Certainly things tend to get confusing when you travel, hence people have been asking about my trip home so here it is, remember, you asked.

After arriving in the pouring rain on May 10th, via Greyhound at 1:50 AM in the morning at Salisbury – (Did I mention the last bus for DART leaving Wilmington was 8:00 PM? – seriously it was!) – and being asked to go home with two women driving past me in a car by the Amtrak Station (Welcome to Wilmington!) – I contemplated going to sleep but realized I lost 5 hours thanks to nonexistent public transportation, so I rebelled against my body, I stayed up all night prepping for the 5k.

I arrived at The Vince Morris Trail at Chapel Branch around 5:00ish AM, and spent the morn clearing paths, arranging blockages to paths not to take, and well, amid dancing between the rain, we had the 5k!  Was it a success?  I would say yes despite the rain, we had 19 entrants (informational page on this be posted today (fingers crossed), yet I was shooting for 40 people.  However, when you ask if the cause or the numbers are important, well, the cause always wins.

After a great rainy race, I went home and literally physically crashed.  🙂  I spent the evening when I did wake up repacking, preparing items to leave behind for friends, and then knew, to get back home I’d have to catch the Greyhound out of Salisbury, at 10:00 to get to the Amtrak train, to get to Philly before my plane left.  I purchased the ticket online, and then to my surprise Sunday morn (I shouldn’t have been) found the Greyhound Station closed, on Sunday, so I might have purchased a ticket but had not way to prove it – awesome!

LUCKILY, the Greyhound driver let me board, I explained, he advised me NOT to purchase online, and we made it to Dover.  I called ahead of time and made sure they looked up my confirmation # and had a my ticket for pick up THERE.  Sure did, that made my DAY (after the uncertainty up to this point), and onto Wilmington.  Made it to Wilmington, caught the Amtrak to Philly, made it to the airport, with literally 20 minutes to spare, and perfect timing.  Whew!  Event free?  Could it be?

I looked at my transfer ticket, and saw they gave me 20 minutes to connect to my flight out of Houston, which well, frankly made me nervous.  I called United and asked them about this and they said United usually leaves 17 minutes to transfer and that I’d make it, and I thought, if you say so!  Getting ready o get off the flight in Houston, I double checked to make sure I had to pick up my bags, recheck them and board, all in 20 minutes, I was slightly nervous.  Affirmative.

I RAN, LITERALLY, ran to the baggage, no bag, nog bag, NO BAG!  Now I saw that I was behind the time for my flight and was sure my plane had left.  I went to baggage claim, and they told me the luggage was automatically put onto the plane to Mexico, so literally, my luggage was on it s way to Mexico, I was however not.

Ever get to the point where you just felt so burned that well, you had nothing left?  This was me at this point, I was livid, exhausted, and worn out.  I was told I could maybe get a voucher at the United desk for a hotel, and found that everyone had left already from United.  Sleeping in the terminal, I was weighing the pros and cons.  Finally, I realized I was just too darn tired.

I went to the onsite Marriott, inquired knowing the cheapest room was 250.00, and no kidding, NO KIDDING, Isaac, the desk clerk and a young woman gave me a blue light rate, of 120.00.  I almost got down and kissed their feet, but gave them 3 boxes of Girl Scout cookies instead.  I have to say I think this was one of the best nights sleep I had hands down. I made it to my rescheduled plane the next morn, into Mexico, and had an amazing end of the day with the SRU students at the Basilica.

Amid the late night coming and going, I realized the following:

Public transportation in DE, awful for people who do not have a car and have to get somewhere in all hours, AWFUL.

I love being home and in bed.

It will take 2-3 weeks to recover and rest from this experience.

Even in your most stressed hour, when you think you don;t see it there are people around that will help you get out of a jam.  They appear out of nowhere, keep the faith.