Who is Your Favorite President and Why?

 Who is Your Favorite President and Why?

 

“I Like Ike!”  “I Like Ike!” I was in second grade when the election was held.  I remember we had a mock election in our room.  Of course, I voted for Ike – for two reasons:  1) My mom and dad told me that they were going to vote for him and 2) I really liked his slogan!  Not the best of reasons – but for a seven-year old, they worked for me!

 

As an adult, I switched my allegiance to the Democratic party.  But I only paid attention during an election year when, of course, we were deciding our next President.  John F. Kennedy is the first one I truly remember since he was so young and charismatic and, of course, dying in such a tragic way.  I really liked Barack Obama (and still do) – and not because he was our first black President.  Policies aside – I think he is a faithful husband and devoted father and truly did what he thought was best for our country as opposed to doing what was best for him personally.

 

Now.  How does one successfully transition from the topic of the day to what one really wants to discuss?  Not a clue.  So, just let me tell you about our trip to Phoenix, Arizona.

 

Our dear friends, Dan and Gerry, picked us up at home and took us to the airport.  It was minus four degrees when we left Minneapolis and plus 80 degrees when we arrived a few hours later in Phoenix.  We certainly were lucky to miss all this cold weather!

 

We scheduled our Sun Country flight way back last May.  Since then, Sun Country has enacted a new rule whereby if one wants to bring a carry-on bag onboard, one would have to pay an extra $40.  Do you believe that?  But, we were lucky – since we bought our tickets prior to this rule taking effect, we got to have our carry-on bags with us – for nothing….. extra, anyway.

 

Another fun fact – for us.  We selected Row 15, seats A & C – just in case the plane isn’t full, we could have the empty middle seat to ourselves.  A little extra room is always our goal.  Well – out of all 30+ rows on the plane – there was one empty seat.  That’s right – Row 15, Seat B.  Our lucky streak continued.

 

Arriving on time in Phoenix, we exited the plane.  As I was looking over the people who were waiting to fly back to Minnesota, I saw someone familiar.  I looked at her and she looked at me.  Finally – recognition!  And, we wave to each other.  Well, of course I had to greet her.  So, I tapped Norm on his shoulder and said I was going to talk to someone from church.  Norm ---- I found out later ------ had no idea what I said.  He just kept on walking. 

 

I greeted (name to be filled in later because I can’t remember her name!) and we talked for a few minutes.  Then I looked for Norm so we could walk to the Baggage Claim area.  No Norm.  No where.   I figured that since he walks so slowly, he just wanted a head start.  So, I walked to Baggage Claim and – yes, you guessed it.  No Norm.  I tried to walk back to our gate but security wouldn’t let me.  I told the guard that I lost my husband and that I tried calling him on his phone to tell him where I was.  But, unfortunately, during the flight, Norm gave me his hearing aids for safe keeping.  So, he can’t hear the phone.  Just as I was going to ask if there was some way a LOUD announcement could be made, I saw Norm slowly walking toward me.  He evidently took a small detour at the restroom.  Why didn’t I think of that?  He ALWAYS takes a small detour at the restroom!

 

Norm had originally reserved a rental car.  But, our son, John, installed an Uber app on my phone and we checked out the price to go from Phoenix to Sun City West.  It was $45.  Wow!  That’s much cheaper than renting a car.  We planned on using the golf cart that came with our rental house to drive around town to the various community centers, grocery store, etc.  so we didn’t really need a car every day.  We planned on just renting a car now and then when we wanted to venture out to the Grand Canyon or Sonoma or wherever.

 

So, I opened up my Uber app and plugged in the address and the price was $171!  (We later found out that there was a big golf tournament in Phoenix that weekend and all the prices went up.)  We then decided to keep our Enterprise rental car and went to their counter.  They had a hard time finding our reservation. 

 

Well, I had my trip file with me and thought I would prove to them that we did have a reservation.  The file was kind of thick and I carefully looked at each page.  Only to discover the reservation Norm had made was made with HERTZ – not Enterprise!  I quickly hid that page and announced that I couldn’t find it.  “No worries,” the clerk said.  Since we had rented from them several times before, they said we could have a car for one day and we could return it in Sun City West – with no extra “drop-off charge.”

 

I drove from the airport to Sun City West in rush hour traffic using the navigation app on my phone – without incident!

 

Day 1 in Phoenix – success!  Only 58 more to go!  In 80-degree weather.  No ice.  No snow.  No clouds.  Just sunny days.  Our lucky streak continues!  See you in April!