I Left My Heart - In Sacramento

For anyone my age and older, you've probably heard of the song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". Well....I think I probably left a big chunk of mine in Sacramento. : (

"Uncle Brandon" drove me to the airport at 6:00 a.m. on his way to work. (Yes, he REALLY does goes to work that early!) I didn't sleep much the night before because I had so much going through my mind and I didn't want to oversleep. I was so thankful that he offered to take me because I wasn't sure that Payton would be able to find her way back from the airport to Brandon's house. It was probably best that I told Payton "good-bye" at his house and didn't have to try to do it at the airport. Brandon got out of the car long enough to pump some gas, and I could feel the tears start building. He jumped back in the car and I said, "Just start talking fast or I'm gonna lose it!" I held up pretty well and only used up two tissues!

The flights into Denver and out of Denver were very rough. I'm not a "seasoned flyer", but I do know that it's not supposed to feel like you're on a roller coaster and they normally take the seatbelt sign off at some point during the flight. That didn't happen very often. I felt sorry for the people who needed to use the restroom. Every time they stood up to get in line, the pilot would come back on the PA system and say, "Please return to your seats. We're experiencing turbulance." He actually used the word, "scary" at one point, which is NOT something you want to hear your pilot say! I kept thinking, "God, you've gotten me this far. I figure you'll take care of me the rest of the way, too!" My flight into Pittsburgh ended up arriving about 40 minutes later than originally expected, but Mom and Dad hadn't given up on me and gone home yet!

I was totally exhausted, both physically and emotionally, by the time we got home. It was good -VERY GOOD, to see the green, WV hills again and to get my arms around Tommy and Landon. Even the pets seemed to miss me. (Of course, I'm not sure they'd been fed for the last few days and they know I'm their "meal ticket".)

Tommy patiently put up with my tears last night as I climbed into bed and wondered what Payton was doing out in California. I think this will take a little getting used to, but life will be busy back here, as usual, and I'll get to talk to her often.

I'll try to post some pictures of our trip a little bit later today. I had to take them from a moving vehicle at 80 mph since Payton didn't want to waste the time to actually stop, so I'm not sure how great they'll be. Maybe I can add some descriptions: "this blur is a snowcapped mountain.....this smear is actually a huge rock formation!"

Check back for a few pictures. Until later, Debbie