February 23, 2009

flight tracker

Reagan was off to Florida today for a special trip with her Dad to see her Grandpa and Grandma. She was so excited when she found out she was going and counted down the days until their departure. Last night, after she was all packed and it was time to go to bed, she started getting nervous. Butterflies. Reagan wrote out each hour she had left before take off and crossed each hour as they ticked off the clock. She did finally get to sleep after about an hour of talking, tossing, turning and more talking. She reminded me of this commercial. Who wouldn't be excited. She is off an extra week of school because her Dad doesn't have enough seniority to get school vacation weeks off from his job. And She gets to go to Disneyworld. It should be noted that the first time I went to Disney it was with her grandfather and grandmother. My in-laws took me during my trip down to see their place after they first bought it 15 years ago. I think it is pretty appropriate that they are now taking her. Reagan was even more nervous (read: almost crying) this morning. She got dressed quickly and scanned her bedroom for any other momentos she might want to take on the plane. The whole carry on bag contained stuff to keep her busy and snacks. Before they left for the airport at 4:30 am, Reagan crossed off the last hour and wrote, "I am leaving" on the paper. It was pretty hard to see her go. I hugged her extra tight, as she did me. Thank goodness for Dan's brother in law, as he saved me the early morning trip to Albany. I managed to get back to sleep for a couple of hours, brought Greg to school and got back in front of the computer to watch take off.



It is somewhat nerve wracking to sit and watch the little green airplane move further south on the map after each refresh of the screen. Flight Tracker also tells you in the margin how fast the plane is going (over 400 miles per hour) and how high the plane is (mostly cruising at 40,000 feet). I had to leave for work when they were about halfway there. I have flown with Reagan the one other time she has flown. I must say it is different to have your baby 40,000 feet in the air and NOT be with her. Interestingly, toward the end of the flight, the tracker showed that they had 10 miles to go and then listed the flight as tentatively landed. Tentatively is a strange choice of wording. The plane has either landed or it hasn't. Right? At the next refresh it showed that they landed 7 minutes before. I began calling Dan's cell phone and actually was able to make contact about 15 minutes after they landed. Phewwwww.


She proceeded to call me 2 times in 4 hours. I am happy that she wants to keep me in the loop. I asked her to journal her activities each night and if she was lucky, maybe grandpa would let her do her blogging from his laptop. Sure enough, she already wrote her first post.


Greg and I are enjoying some peace and quiet here at home. No fighting over who gets the couch or the TV and he hasn't fought me for the computer (yet). We ate dinner at his (our) friend's house and laughed hysterically together. We are now pigging out on cake and doritos. So what if we are wearing fleece and reagan is wearing shorts and a tank top. 75 degrees in Venice Florida today.

1 comment:

Cedar ... said...

Technology is amazing,.. to be able to track a flight with all those details. I commented on Reagan's blog and told her to have fun and take pictures! I was excited at her excitement!