We're here!

We made it!! It feels unreal, even though I'm sitting her in the hotel room typing this. Here are some of the days highlights:

I like to be early to places, but I accidentally got to the airport nearly three hours early. It was a once in a lifetime lack of any traffic on I610, a line of 3 people at the check-in counter and NO WAIT at the TSA. I know, I'll never again have that type of luck.

On a side note, the IAH restrooms are not clean. Atlanta is only moderately better. Cleanest bathrooms in an airport? O'Hare and San Diego. Okay, back on track.

We had a good flight into Atlanta and found the Canine Assistant people easily. I knew that we had another family on the same flight with us going to CA (I really like them), so I thought we would be loaded up on the bus shortly. What they didn't tell us is that they tried to schedule us all to come in as close together as possible so they wouldn't have to make multiple trips. I understand that logically, but we spent 3 hours in IAH and 2 hours on a plane, so being told to wait indefinitely was not fun. I wish they had told us to expect that because the extra 2+ hours of waiting were really hard. We were put in a small seating area and told to wait with our luggage. We were very fortunate to have the other family with us so we could take turns sitting with the luggage while others went for a walk.

The bus finally came and we all lugged our luggage down and started to load it on. It worked out that there were more people than the bus could hold, so 4 people would need to walk to the minivan in the parking garage. Mika and I were already on the bus, but we gave up our seats to a woman (and companion) who didn't think she would be able to walk that far. Everyone was so grateful I was embarrassed. Today, both of us are able to walk that far and it would be selfish to refuse to do that. We had a great time in the minivan, our driver (hilarious!), two former soldiers, me and my kid in the backseat. We got a little lost, but it was so funny, it didn't bother any of us that we ended up late for supper.

There were 'packets' waiting for us at the hotel. Each one was a small bag contained items from Canine Assistants and put together local Girl Scout troop, who added ribbons and lots of flare. There were 2 photo frames, a dog toy, a little carrying case for disposal bags (is there any more discreet way to say that?) a travel water bowl and frisbee and other good stuff. There was a note in there from CA explaining what will happen in the next few days. We got to dinner a little late, met with our 1st week hosts, unpacked our bags, and made a quick trip to Publix to get some rice milk and safe snacks for Mikaela.

I'm sitting here looking around at the hotel room that will be home for the next two weeks and it's a bit overwhelming. The room is small and it seems somewhat mind boggling that I can share this room with my child and a new dog for two weeks without killing at least one of them.

I wasn't at all nervous about the training camp, but the letter in our packet repeatedly said not to be nervous and not to worry. Oh, and they reminded us that we weren't guaranteed to leave with a dog. I completely understand that, because if they don't think the dog can be of any help to you or if they think you wouldn't be good for the dog, they're not going to support that. In fact, I agree with that. Still, if you add all of that together and the reassurance that the mental and physical exhaustion will be worth it.... I'm getting nervous.