Ten years ago, this past September, I checked off number 28!

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I went to Dollywood! I haven’t until now, however, posted the pictures or stories from this adventure. The good news: I just came across all of the images and videos from that trip. The bad news: I can’t remember most of the stories of what was going on at that time.

What I do remember, however, is that my friend Colee came to visit me while I still lived in Kentucky, and we went on a road trip down to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. On the way down, we listened to a lot of Dolly Parton’s music, and we stopped for a night at my friend Heather’s house.

Dollywood was a blast, and I would love to go back again! On the way home, we went Zorbing, and then we stopped by Mammoth Cave to explore. It was a really fun trip and an amazing visit with my dear friend, Colee!

I have finally put all these videos together, if you’d like to take a look. The first one is our trip down to Dollywood, and the second one is our trip back up to my home in Kentucky. I hope you enjoy!

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I’m sure that many of you have been seeing what is happening in the airline industry right now. Covid-19 has undoubtedly taken its toll. I searched for the known impact, and I found this Wikipedia entry. It is so sad to see what is happening at the moment.

One way my employers are trying to avoid laying anybody off is by offering us an option to take a voluntary leave. They are calling it “Extended Time Off” or E.X.T.O. They let those interested decide if they wanted to take up to either 6, 12, or 18 months off, with partial pay. I happen to be one of these 17,000 employees who took advantage of this.

So, I have up to the next 12 months off. Not only will I make a partial paycheck, but I’m still considered a full-time employee. This means that I have all of my health and travel benefits still. While traveling the world for a year seems like a beautiful idea, Covid-19 is still rampant in some parts of the world.

While I would love to visit my beloved Scotland for the next six months, I don’t think they want Americans to come for a visit just yet. However, I believe that I should be exempt just because of my sheer love for all things Scotland.

Instead, I’ve decided to hunker down, for the time being, with a dear friend who happens to be going through some significant health issues. The plan is to try to help out in any way I can, even if I can only offer support.

There may not be as many travel entries for a while. I’ll use this time to fix some older entries and maybe talk about more things on the bucket list. As you know, I’ve slacked off quite a bit with the blog. I do beg your forgiveness!

I will try to keep this blog’s theme true: This is a record of my travels and chasing the things on my bucket list. I don’t plan on posting very much about what is going on in my personal life, but I will share one cool thing that I find exciting- just over a month ago, I rescued a little girl that I named ‘Reba.’

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Finally! You can stop holding your breath! Since the beginning of September, I have been otherwise occupied/ distracted, but I Scream: 10 is now a thing! A special THANK YOU to everyone who participated this year! This has become such a fun tradition! My final count turned out the be 137 friends and family celebrating! Please enjoy this year’s slideshow!

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Today was my annual recurrent training- a day where I am required to sit in a classroom for eight hours to recertify as a flight attendant. Although this day is more relaxed than initial training had been sixteen years ago, I still find it rather stressful. I know this is mostly head games, though.

Most every aspect of this training is a review, but that doesn’t make things any better in my mind. You are required to go through a few scenarios of things that can happen onboard. Even though I’ve never failed, there is always that thought that I may. I’m there in front of my coworkers, after all.

I am thankful that I made it through! I have thoroughly enjoyed this career, and I hope to keep flying for years to come!

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I guess it’s time to give you an update. I am happy, excited, and nervous that starting next month, I will be taking up to a year off (the extended time off that I mentioned in my last post). This time off will free me up so that I can help a friend out who is going through some very serious health issues.

I hope that I can get back to Scotland during this time, but I’m not sure what I’ll be able to afford. I will have a smaller income- but perhaps I can find some sort of side-gig. Maybe some more time driving for Lyft? The next 12 months should be exciting because that is what I sometimes feel about the unknown. There is a chance that they may call me back to work before the end. You will know as soon as I do.

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It is a crazy time to be employed by an airline! Thanks to COVID-19, many major U.S. airlines are getting ready to furlough or even fire their employees. Delta Air Lines recently announced that they would be furloughing up to 17,000 employees. American Airlines- around 25,000 employees, and United Airlines- up to 36,000.

One of the ways that my employer is trying to avoid this is by offering an extended time-off program. They are allowing us to take 6, 12, or up to 18 months off. In this program, the employee will continue to make a portion of his or her income. They will also get to keep all of their travel and health benefits. So far, Southwest has never had a single furlough- this is something that most airlines cannot boast. I hope it stays that way, so I’m going to do my part… tomorrow I will find out if I will be given the next 12 months off.

There is always a chance that those who are granted this time away will be called back. This is, of course, based on the need of the company. My guess is that this is going to happen. Once the pandemic dies down (perhaps one day after the election in November?), we will be filling our planes to capacity again. We have so many new planes ordered, and I know that the Denver base is about to grow. When this growth starts, those on this extended leave will be given a 30-day notice that we need to come back.

I will update again soon and let you know what I find out!

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I guess I’m allowed to cross number 37 off of my bucket list. Well, technically, that is. The goal was to buy a Eurail pass, and that’s one of the things that I did for this last trip. Even though I didn’t actually get to use my pass (waste of money), I still purchased one.

As you know, my trip this year was cut short because of the havoc that COVID was reeking on Europe. The intended route was to fly down to Paris (after Scotland), take the train into Switzerland, southern Germany, and eventually all the way to Prague- but since things were closing, including borders, I decided that it was best to get my butt back to the states.

My experience having to deal with the Eurail people wasn’t all that great. You fill out your information online, and they have to mail you the pass. On this pass, you have to fill in the exact information of the train you want to take. This is leg by leg- I couldn’t just say I wanted to go from Paris to Geneva. If there was a connection leg, then I’d have to fill out each portion. It was really annoying-

My first complaint is that this should all be done online. I shouldn’t have to rely on my illegible penmanship. Surely this could all be done electronically. Perhaps we could be given some sort of pass/card to access the trains- the system they have set up now is obviously one that they’ve had in place since the 80s or early 90s.

On my next go-round, I’m not even going to bother with a pass, I’ll just book the trains individually. When I added up all the fares that I had to pay, I really wasn’t saving THAT much money by getting the pass. Maybe you had a better experience than I did?

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A Light Flight to NYC

“The new normal” is very odd. I think I’ll call it “the current normal” instead. On Saturday, I was assigned to work a turn (that’s where you work a flight away from the base, and then back to base without having a layover/ overnight stay). I worked to New York City and then back to Denver. On the way out, we had 22 passengers (on a plane that holds 175!), most of them were doctors, nurses, or some sort of healthcare. They were all being sent there to help with the virus in the city. The flight home was booked to 17 people, but only 6 showed up.

Today I’m sitting in our inflight lounge, waiting to see if they are going to use me. I’m secretly hoping that they don’t- I’d prefer to just go back to the crashpad and relax. This has nothing to do with the virus- I have decided to not live in fear. I’ll be careful, but if I do catch it, I hope to recover quickly. It’s not just health workers who are considered “essential.” Some of us have to get them to their destination, after all.

Scotland 8: Day 24, The Conclusion

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03.25.20 | Home | 23:47

I woke up after about nine hours of sleep! Nine hours isn’t usually something that my body requires, but I think lugging my backpack all around London wiped me out.

I got all my things ready and checked out of the hostel. One night is not enough time to spend in London. I’ll have to make it part of the planning for my next go-round. I just hope that the next go-round won’t be cut short by any viruses.

Heathrow has no lines and no waits. It was amazing to walk right up to the ticket counter and right up to the security line. I guess there is the silver lining on this whole debacle. In no time at all, I was in the gate area, buying cookies for the crew.

When Norwegian has to cancel my original flight home, I booked my Delta flight from London to Detroit, and then to Salt Lake City. Yesterday that first flight got canceled, and so They changed me to fly from London to Atlanta to Detroit and finally to Salt Lake City. Yes, it was annoying to be given that extra leg, but I knew that they were doing their best to get me home.

About halfway from London to Atlanta, I was looking at my itinerary, and I noticed that they had me missing my Detroit flight by about an hour! This would have meant that I’d have to spend a night in Detroit, and I was hoping that this wouldn’t happen.

I started doing research, connected to the plane’s wifi and noticed that there were still at least two nonstop flights from Atlanta to Salt Lake City after we were supposed to be landing in Atlanta. I jumped in Delta’s app, and after having to wait in line for about an hour and a half, I managed to get to chat with a customer service agent.

She was able to change me to one of the nonstops to SLC. Now I’m back in my original plan of only having to take two flights to get home! I’m so thankful that my first plane had working wifi available!

I need to hand it to my first crew! The flight crews were terrific, and even though it took a long time to get through to customer service, they were able to make things right! I know that they are working their fingers to the bone to get passengers home in the wake of this coronavirus disaster- so kudos!

My second crew, on the other hand, were not as good. When I dropped off treats, the flight attendant barely even acknowledged me- no big deal, I guess. Also, they didn’t even seem like they wanted to be there. It was such a contrast from the first group. I wish I hadn’t wasted the chocolate on them.

I am now home and getting ready to fall asleep. There is no way I could adequately describe how tired I am. I have so much on my mind. What have I learned from this trip?

1. Be flexible in your travels

2. Always pay the extra price in case you need to cancel or change your plans (no penalty)

3. Always talk to strangers

4. Remember that travel is about the journey, not just the destination

And with that- I’m off to bed.

Scotland 8: Day 23

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03.24.20 | London, England | 20:53

When I got to Glasgow Central Station this morning, I couldn’t see my 08:00 train listed on the board. I noticed that there had been an earlier one to London that had been canceled. I admit that I was a little bit worried that all the trains may be canceled because of the coronavirus mess.

I found an employee, and after doing some research, he told me that my train’s time was changed to 08:40, but was still running. That was a relief! He then told me there was one leaving in about 5 minutes and that if I hurried, I could catch that one instead.

As I approached the lady with my ticket, she asked me, “Is your travel absolutely necessary?” I told her that I was flying out of London, back to my home in the states, so unless she wanted to book me a plane ticket out of Glasgow, then yes, my travel was necessary. Needless to say, the train was very light. There were only five of us in this particular car. Just before we left the station, an employee came through and asked that we all remain at least two meters apart on the ride. He even separated a couple who is traveling together.

Getting all the way to Euston Station in London takes just under 5 hours if I was paying attention. I was lost in a movie for most of the ride, however. When we arrived, I was bound and determined to walk the 3.2 miles to my hostel. This was quite an accomplishment since I had my big ole pack on my back. I only stopped once to take off my coat, so I’m pretty proud of myself. When I arrived, they let me check in a bit early. I just wanted to get off my feet for a few minutes.

I didn’t spend very much time in my room. This is London, after all. I’m only here for one night, so I wanted to make the most of it. I walked to Westminster Abbey, Elizabeth Tower, and took a look at the London Eye. As expected, nothing was open. I couldn’t see Big Ben because it was hidden behind scaffolding. The London Eye isn’t turning today. I did get a few pictures while I was out and about!

It was sort of depressing. And to think that I was initially going to spend an entire week here. Sadly, it’s time to get back to the states. Tomorrow is there legs home… hoping everything is on time, and there are no cancelations. That seems to be what is happening all around the world right now.