Goodbye...and Hello

 "I'm leavin' on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again..."

I flew away from a home I'd known for over 50 years at approximately 9:40 p.m. on August 8, 2024.  I arrived in Ireland around 11 a.m. on 9 August 2024.  Here's the story of the in-between.

As we were selling the house, we stayed at a hotel nearer the airport for a couple nights leading up to our departure.  You can see that the cats settled in pretty well at the hotel.

On the evening of our flight, we got the cats situated in their harness and leash.  We knew we'd have to take them out of their carriers during the security screening and wanted to be sure they couldn't bolt.  Neither of them had ever worn a harness before aside from a brief moment when I made sure the equipment would fit.  They didn't care for the sensation but they were really quite good about it.

We piled into the rental car with our two large suitcases, two carry-on backpacks, and two unhappy cats.  Our plan was that Eli would drop me off with my backpack and the two cats, go to return the rental car, and come back with our two suitcases and his backpack.

As we approached the drop-off area, the Delta sign stated that the Delta drop-off door was open.  The pick-up/drop-off area was as much of a cluster as you would expect it to be, so we didn't see - until it was too late - that there was construction right in front of the Delta door and indeed, it was NOT open.  Because yeah, that type of thing happening is a balm to someone's nerves.

So it was back in the chute for another spin around the outskirts of the airport, coming back in again into the mess of cars and people near the entry doors.

I got out of the car with my backpack and two cats and plodded into the terminal to sit down and wait for Eli to come back after dropping off the car.  There was a gal sitting in the block of chairs, so I struck up a conversation with her.  She was traveling back home to Nashville, grateful to be returning to her family, and she cooed over the boys.

Eli arrived - relief! - only to say that he'd forgotten his backpack in the rental car so he needed to go back and retrieve it.  😱  If Enterprise had been just a hop/skip/jump away, it wouldn't have been a big deal - but the whole venture involved a tram ride, so it was not a simple process.  He left the suitcases with me and headed back to get his backpack.

At this point, I should mention that his backpack had EVERYTHING we would need to actually get on the plane and/or be admitted into Ireland:  his passport, half the euros we had brought, the cats' health certificate, his work papers, etc.  He mentioned that fact a day or two ago in a Facebook post, and before he said it, I never even considered the gravity of the situation.  And I'm glad I didn't because if I had, I probably wouldn't have been as calm as I was at the airport.

He returned with backpack in tow, so we went to stand in the ticketing/check-in line.  It would have been nice to go through the self-check lane but we couldn't do that as we needed to check the cats, pay their fee, etc.

The line was moving for a few moments and then it just stopped.  And by stopped, I mean stopped DEAD.  Cadavers in the morgue had more life than this friggin' line.

There were four or five agents working the non-elite-passenger check in, and more than half of them spent a lot of time on the phone dealing with some type of issue regarding the passenger standing at their station.  I kid you not, one family was there for over a half hour, dealing with some kind of messy problem.

I felt my anxiety creeping higher and higher the longer we stood there.  Eventually, Delta opened up the elite-passenger check in to deal with the backlog.  After a lengthy check-in process (that dude REALLY looked HARD at the cats' health certificate), we went to stand in line for security.

There were a LOT of people - more than I would've expected at 7 p.m. on a Thursday night - but at least that line was moving pretty well.  The cats made fans in a group of young women who were thrilled to see kitties in line with them.

Both of us were more than frazzled at this point.  I forgot to take my bag of liquids out of my backpack, and Eli forgot to take off his shoes and belt.  The TSA agent at this step in the process was pleasant as a hangnail.  He barked at Eli for some transgression and just was jerky all the way around.  The agent at the scanner was kinder, not giving Eli a hard time for triggering the alarm because he'd forgotten to remove his belt.  We took the kitties out of their carriers, and it's a blur now but I think they did okay.  We had to have our hands swabbed - apparently they randomly check for explosives - and even though I knew I was clean, it was still stress-inducing waiting for the machine to give the all-clear.

We had planned to get something to eat at the airport once settled at our gate but with all the delays, we didn't have time.  Eli got up with one of the cats, wanting to take them into a family bathroom and remove the harness so they didn't have to wear it for the long flight.  Just as he had stepped out of the gate area, the gate agent made an announcement for the following people to come to the desk - and Eli was one of them.

After a few-minute conversation, he left the desk and continued on his way to the bathroom with the cat.  He came back after a while, got the other cat, and repeated the process.

As we're sitting there, Eli AGAIN gets called up to the desk.  What the actual fuck.  There was a family sitting in the seats across from us, kind of commiserating as they were seeing what was happening, and I said to them, "One day, this might be funny.  Today is not that day."

We had bought a row of three seats so we'd have some extra room on the flight.  (And ye gods, am I ever grateful we did!)  One of the tickets was for passenger EXST Eldridge and obviously, that doesn't match his passport.  The first guy Eli had spoken with talked with this gate agent and said things were fine, that we had bought an extra seat/ticket.  You'd think Delta would have a workaround for that - I can't imagine we're the first people who've bought an extra seat - but here we are.

Finally we got on the plane, got our backpacks stowed, and put the cats beneath the seats in front of us.  Our flight was delayed for about a half hour because of traffic ahead of us - the pilot said something like, "It wouldn't be Minneapolis if there weren't traffic" - and then we were taxiing for take-off.

I felt a couple tears slip from my eyes but honestly, I was so concerned about the cats that I pretty much shoved my personal emotions about leaving home into my feet.

Neither cat enjoyed the take-off - I'm sure it bothered their ears, and they didn't understand what was happening.

If I tell you that I didn't sleep for over 26 hours, I think that will give you some idea of how the flight went.

Honestly, without the cats, it would've been fine.  There weren't any unruly, idiot passengers, and the flight itself was relatively uneventful (not much turbulence, etc.)  However, we had cats, and it was not fine for long stretches.  I spent most of the flight with Patrick's carrier on my lap, hunched over it with my hand stuck inside to pet him, shushing him and begging him to stop crying.  Eli did much the same with Norris.  We didn't want them to be upset, and we were mortified that they might be disturbing the people around us, some of whom were trying to sleep.  I didn't notice that anyone shot us any dirty looks or said anything, but I still felt bad.

It was more than a relief when we touched down in Dublin and knew at least the plane portion of the journey was over.

Again, we made a long slog to the baggage claim area.  We found the conveyor belt with the luggage from our flight....only our luggage wasn't on it.  We needed to have a compliance check done for the cats by the Department of Agriculture so we decided to get that done first and then worry about the luggage.

The representative scanned the boys' microchips, looked over their paperwork, and stamped it.  He said, "These certificates are good for four months so you're free to travel the EU during that time."  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Do you think after THIS flight that I'll EVER travel with these cats again??  That's a hard no.

After the Ag visit, we wandered over to the "Baggage Enquiries," planning to ask about our luggage.  I nearly cried when I saw some luggage sitting there and I recognized the new kitty luggage tag I had bought.  Both of our bags were there so we grabbed them and rolled toward Customs.

Not knowing what line to get into (there's a green line if you don't have anything to declare and a red line if you do - the guidance we'd read online said that if you weren't sure to get into the red line), we got into the red line.  The Customs agent (who had that prototypical Irish accent) said, "If you're standing in that line, it's because you want me to have a conversation with you.  Do you want me to have a conversation with you?"  😃 He was quite good-natured about it.  We mentioned to him that we hadn't been sure about which line to go to, and he asked if we were bringing in XXX (I can't remember now what he said besides meat).  We said no, and he sent us on our way.

The next delay was trying to get a taxi.  I think Eli had made a reservation for one, but we wound up waiting for quite some time.  I'm feeling more and more faint - remember, I hadn't slept for over a day, and I barely ate or drank on the flight - and I'm worried about the cats who have been stuck in their carriers for over 12 hours.

Eventually, our driver shows up and we start the 40-minute drive to our apartment.  But first, we had to stop at one of the sister apartments to ours to pick up our keys.  That was a cluster too, and poor Eli was about ready to pop by the time he secured the keys and we were able to get to our apartment.  If the key fob hadn't worked to let us in, I think I would've completely lost my mind at that point.

Our relocation coordinator showed up a little while after we arrived.  She wanted to do a walk-through of the apartment, taking photos to ensure we wouldn't get dinged for stuff if/when we moved out.  She offered to drive us to the market or wherever we needed to go, but we had no idea exactly what we needed so we begged off.

Quite honestly, the rest of that day is a complete blur.  We may've walked to a nearby convenience store to get a LEAP card (used for the buses and trains) and a little food but I wouldn't swear to it at this point.

So, dear reader, thus ends the tale of our journey here.  In future posts, I will talk about our experiences since we landed.

Here are the boys in their new home: