The trip south and back

Traveling with a significant other for the first time can be somewhat of a test for your relationship. It can be inherently stressful, and everyone deals with travel stress differently.

So I approached the first true trip that the bf and I would take with a lot of excitement mixed with a bit of caution. We get along great, and we seem to be able (at least so far) to talk things through rationally when we have differing viewpoints. I thought that we would be ok, but of course, you never know.

When I was invited to travel south to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for a University of Alabama football game, I, of course, asked the bf to accompany me. He loves football (though, when it comes to college ball, he is a die-hard Ohio State fan), and I thought it would be a nice opportunity for us to spend some uninterrupted time together.

Little did I know that when I chose the game taking place the Saturday after Thanksgiving, that for once I had chosen wisely. I chose the game against Auburn because it meant neither of us had to take any time off of work. As I later learned, the Alabama/Auburn rivalry is perhaps the most important one for both schools. Known as the Iron Bowl, Auburn had won the last six years, and Alabama had never won on its home field. Another thing working in my favor? Going into the game, Alabama was ranked #1 in the nation with an undefeated record.

So while the choice of the game was working in my favor, the travel gods were busting a gut laughing at me when they learned that we would be traveling on perhaps the busiest travel weekend of the year, Thanksgiving weekend.

In preparation for our trip, I did something that I've pretty much never done before. I organized and packed my stuff the night before. I am famously a last-minute packer. Probably my most legendary packing escapade was in high school when I was leaving to go to Philmont in New Mexico for...three months. I started packing around 1:30 am, when we had to leave by 2:30 am to make it to Amtrak in time.

Anyway, so Thanksgiving evening, my clothes were all laid out in neat piles when the bf arrived from spending Turkey Day with his family. Thus, begun another first for me, sharing a suitcase with a significant other. I'm not sure if I'm just overly protective of my stuff or if I had just never had the opportunity before, but the bf has a large suitcase while I just have a little overnight bag. So half my stuff went into his suitcase. The result? Apparently I'm totally able to share suitcase space with another human being.

So on Friday, we managed to get our butts out of bed and make it to the Cleveland airport in plenty of time, though did run into some friends flying to Breckenridge for skiing. I was a little jealous. Anyway, we flew to Houston and had about a 90-minute layover, enough time to grab a decent lunch at Chili's Too (though I did have to ask them to fix the bacon). We successfully made it to Birmingham, and then the first travel issue arose.

We were scheduled to meet a driver who would transport us to Tuscaloosa. Now, before you go thinking that we were living it up with a driver in a black suit and one of those cute little hats waiting in baggage claim with our names on a board to then escort us to a limo with a minibar...our driver was supposed to be a nice guy driving a minivan. Anyway, just as we reach baggage claim, we get a call from him telling us that the van (which the company just bought new, and it only has 10,000 miles on it) broke down. So in the end, our main contact had to drive an hour from Tuscaloosa to the Birmingham airport (giving us time though to grab a snack) and drive back to Tuscaloosa.

We checked into the hotel, relaxed for a little while, grabbed showers and got dressed for dinner, which included divine barbecue, potato salad, baked beans (which I skipped) and sweet tea (perhaps my favorite thing about the south) - all provided by our very gracious hosts. With full bellies, we returned to the hotel, caught up on some tv and crashed.

We were up early on Saturday so that we could enjoy a good southern breakfast, complete with grits (which on this trip I learned I do not like with butter, but do enjoy with gouda). It was rainy and cloudy, but the weather guy said the rain would stop before the game.

It was then on to the Quad on campus to tailgate the way tailgating was meant to be done - show up, drink, eat, sit under a tent, enjoy, watch other football games on the flat screen, go watch the game - basically meaning someone else gets to set up and clean up.

After tailgating (more good food and adult beverages), we headed over to the stadium to hitch an elevator ride to the skybox. While we were waiting in line, we had the pleasure of seeing Charles Barkley walk by. The skybox was amazing, with more great food and company. And of course the game was...awesome - Alabama shut out Auburn 36 to zip, zero, nada. We got to experience the legendary Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer song first hand. Of course, earlier in the afternoon, the bf had thrown me under the bus by spilling to our hosts that he had practiced the song in advance and I had not. No worries, I did fine, and we had an absolute blast at the game.

We hoofed it back to the truck and then hit a great suburban restaurant, of which, of course, I can't remember the name. Warmed up with some hot cocoa and a nice Pinot Noir, and this is where I learned I like grits with gouda. It was a nice relaxing evening, the perfect way to finish off a long, fun-filled day.

Back at the hotel, it was such a long day that I was going to read while the bf caught up on the remainder of the college football scores. I don't even think I lasted two minutes. Of course, he was nice enough to inform me the next morning that i had been snoring.

On Sunday, our flight wasn't until 4:30, so we had plenty of time to sleep in, grab breakfast at the hotel and pack our stuff. This time all of the toiletries went into his bag, so that we could carry my bag on and not have to pay $15 to check it. We grabbed lunch with our hosts; then the nice guy with the minivan (this one operating as it should) drove us back to the airport, which then began the 10 hours of travel nightmares.

Our flight path was scheduled to take us from Birmingham to Atlanta (the busiest airport in the nation) for a short layover, and then on to Cleveland, arriving home by 9:45 pm. The fun started in security tagged the bf for the special full-body pat down and bomb testing of the luggage. Of course, the most amusing part for me? He was carrying my bag. So when they opened it, they were taking out my heels, dress pants and underwear. I asked him later whether he told them it was his girlfriend's bag or that he was a crossdresser. At that point, we had already found out our first flight was delayed by at least an hour, so he didn't seem so amused. So after waiting for our delayed flight for an extra 90 minutes, we finally departed for Atlanta.

Luckily, our Atlanta to Cleveland flight was also delayed, which meant we avoided having to find a hotel room in Atlanta. From what I had heard from friends, Atlanta is a nightmare to fly through normally, let alone on a busy holiday weekend. Regardless, we had enough time to quickly grab ham sandwiches and Cheetos (which the bf was nice enough to remember is one of my favorite snacks). While we finally made it into Cleveland around 11:15ish, the bf's bag did not. It was still in Atlanta because somehow Delta couldn't manage to transfer bags from their plane to a continental plane in 60 minutes. So the bf spent 20 or 30 minutes in Continental's luggage office filing a claim (along with a number of other folks who had been on both of our flights).

Luckily, I don't live far from the airport, so we finally made it home around 12:15 and crashed. (And we figured it out, that we basically could have driven back to Ohio in the same amount of time.) While we were both planning on going into work on Monday morning, having to go get back to the airport to get the bag changed our plans. So we took advantage of the situation. We slept in until about 8:30 when we got the call that the suitcase had indeed made it to Cleveland, grabbed quick showers, swung by the airport to get the bag and went to breakfast. (I have to say that It really helps the relationship that we're both huge breakfast fans.)

So that is the probably-way-too-long detailed version of our first trip together. We successfully weathered it, didn't bicker even once and managed to still want to be together. It was just a weekend trip, but I think it bodes well for us.