On our way at last. Maybe.

Saturday, December 29. I can tell, when I wake at 6:00 to my alarm clock, that this trip is starting better than the last two. In 2003, I was awake at 3:30 a.m. in anticipation; in 2005, I did not even get to sleep until that time, due to a late-night doctor visit with my younger son. But this time, after a relatively peaceful Christmas week and an early bedtime last night, I rise refreshed, alert, and excited to be leaving. We’re flying to Florida today!

The pessimist in me insists that nothing ever goes completely smoothly, but for the moment I am able to suppress any negative thoughts.

Benjamin arrives in our bedroom fully dressed, before his 6:10 alarm even sounds. (What a difference from our first trip 4+ years ago.) Brandon is up not too long after. Almost all of our luggage is already in the car. I take care of all of our security timers, check that our newspaper delivery has stopped, and lock all of the doors. We’re in the car and on our way before 7:00, heading to Becky’s parents’ house, 35 minutes away with no traffic, where a Super Shuttle is scheduled to pick us up by 8 a.m.

Traffic is light, Disney tunes are in the CD changer (“On the Open Road” from the Goofy movie is a good fit for our mood!), and we’re there by 7:30. We park and unload our luggage onto the front sidewalk.

When I return from parking our minivan in the rear driveway, the Super Shuttle is already here! We load up quickly and shut the doors, with me playing an audio clip of “Please stand clear of the doors. Por favor mantengan se alejado de las puertas” over an MP3 player and mini-speaker I have brought just for this occasion. We are actually on our way to D/FW airport at 7:36, for a 10:15 flight on US Airways. That flight will take us to Charlotte, NC, where we will connect to a flight for Orlando, arriving just after 4 p.m. Eastern time. Wow, things are going well!

On the way to the airport in the Super Shuttle, the six of us chat about what we are going to see and do. As we are passing downtown Dallas, Bob and I talk about the new “ice lights” covering Cinderella Castle. He doesn’t recall having seen a picture of them. I just happen to have one as the wallpaper of my cell phone. I unclip the phone from my belt, flip it open, and… hmm, that’s odd – I have a new voice message waiting.

One of my favorite quotes is from George Will, about how the great thing about being a pessimist is that you are always either being proven right or pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, this is one of those “proven right” times.

The call is from US Airways. Our Dallas to Charlotte flight has been delayed enough that we will miss our connection to Orlando!

On the plus side, we’ve already been rebooked, on a non-stop American flight. It's a nonstop flight, but it leaves at 2:25, over six hours from now!

We have some time to kill.