And He's Off...

Today was the big day...the day Dan left for Florence, Italy for four months (note my countdown clock below on the right!). He was flying out of Logan. I've never been there but have heard nothing but horror stories about trying to get in and out of there. For days we've been considering using Logan Express--we would drop Dan off in Framingham and he would take the shuttle bus into Logan. We would avoid all the hassles and cost of driving into Logan, but it also meant saying good-bye in Framingham vs. the airport.

Well, this morning we decided to drive to Logan. It's an estimated 2 hour drive and we were planning to leave at 11 anyhow, so this gave us an hour+ buffer to deal with whatever traffic issues we might encounter. (Dan's flight was at 4:30 so we wanted to be at the airport by 2-2:30.)

We hit the road shortly after 11. In fact we were ready early since Dan had done most of his packing on Sunday. So this morning was just double checking the list that we had already triple checked.

We stopped for gas before leaving town and off we went arriving at Logan at......12:50 PM! Yes, less than 2 hours later we were at the airport. There was no traffic at all. The most confusing part was following the signs once we were at Logan, but thankfully I had checked it out beforehand so had an idea of the layout and where I wanted to park. Really, the only confusing part was when Ed was at a V in the road and Dan yelled at him to go left and I yelled to go right (right was the way to go).

There were NO crowds at all. In fact, the entire terminal was pretty much empty except for a short line at Lufthansa (full of RWU students checking in!). Since Dan checked in online the night before, he was able to bypass the long line and just walk right up to the counter (no waiting) to check his bags. So that took an entire 5 mins of our time!

We took advantage of the time we had and enjoyed a light, leisurely lunch together. Around 2:15-2:30, Dan went through security. Once he got through security he turned around and waved good-bye before heading to his gate (it still makes me smile that he thought to do this--made my day). Ed and I then made the drive back home. Soon after we got home (around 4:30) we rec'd a txt message from Dan that he was on the plane and they were about to take off. (Another smile for texting Mom.)

I have to say we are quite happy with our decision to bring Dan to Logan. It was definitely the right thing to do and the fact that we ran into no problems helped as well. Of course we laughed about the cost of this little adventure--parking at Logan was $12, and lunch was $35, plus the cost of the tolls! So the Logan Express would have been MUCH cheaper ($22 for a round trip ticket), but this was soooo worth it and the right decision.

Ed continues to feel well and did all the driving today. Tomorrow morning is his next chemo appt so hopefully he'll continue to have no serious side effects from that. Only time will tell but I'll be sure to update you.

Phew...what a month it has been! I hope the next 4 months are boring!

A blurry picture of the three of us that some nice gentleman offered to take...