Redeye

What is a “redeye”?  A redeye is a plane flight that flies during most of the hours that people are sleeping.

I’ve been traveling a lot this year and decided that I would consider doing redeye flights since I don’t sleep well anyway before I fly.  In theory, it sounded like the way to go!  As I considered this way of travel, I set out to schedule my next travel this way and a part of me felt ‘genius’!  Here’s what happened...

My first redeye was from Honolulu to Oregon with a short layover in California.  Went well, had a ride home from the airport—uneventful.

Three days laterI was flying from Oregon to Massachusetts.  Did you know that parents in the North West already have this genius way of travel figured out?  Which means on my redeye flight out of Oregon the majority of passengers were kids.  Anyone who knows me knows I Love Kids! 

Just not on this flight.  

They were yawning, crabby, and smelly.  Ya’all have been there, the smell of a dirty locker room with wet sneakers—mmmhhmmm, like that!

The layover was in Chicago, and at 4:30 am in the month of June, the sunrise was exquisite!  My phone camera could not capture the beauty -  orange, purple, royal blue, yellow and red!  Thank you universe for such amazement.  It made the dirty locker room disappear.  And I got lucky; I had the same gate with no changes.  The flight to Boston was mostly adults and business travelers so no more yucky smells!For the most part, I felt the theory was going well. 

On my way back Massachusetts to Oregon, I chose the layover in Colorado over Chicago.  I was not prepared for what came next!  There was a seven hour delay in Massachusetts and I missed my connecting flight in Colorado.  They scheduled me on the next flight to Oregon at 8:15 am the next day. 

When we landed in Colorado, everyone seemed to leave the airport.  All but about six of us and since several looked like airport sleeping veterans I followed their lead.  There was an art to finding a spot you wouldn’t get walked on and wouldn’t have the fluorescent lights beating on your eyelids.  When I claimed my territory, I rolled out my travel blanket and pillow and made the best of it.  I lasted a little over an hour.  It truly was my first time sleeping on the floor in an airport.

That day I checked out of the rental house in Rockport at 10:15 am Monday morning. 24 hours later I was picked up by my daughter at 10:12 am Tuesday morning, exhausted and telling her I will never schedule a redeye ever again.  

They will happen anyway!