Dallas to Seattle; Hurry Up and Wait…in the Pacific Northwest

Episode № 110 continues the passport drama as we travel up to Washington State.

Transcript

Episode № 110 Dallas to Seattle; Hurry Up and Wait…in the Pacific Northwest

Welcome back!
Lady Jupiter Podcast is the audio accompaniment to LadyJupiter.com a lifestyle blog where I write about my family’s military life, our home life, and other tiny details that I just like to share. I’m happy that you’re here with me.

In this episode I’ll share an update on our life as affected by the U.S. military, then continue with a blog update, and wrap up with something domestic.

Today in our military-affected lives I have nothing significant to update.

So last week we left when I was clean and freshly napped outside of the DFW airport.

You may wonder why we couldn’t fly out of Arkansas - that’s because we needed to fly with our Pyrenees-mix hot mess express…who is too large to fly on the planes that depart Little Rock. So we had to rent an extra-large vehicle to drive to Dallas, get a pet-friendly hotel room for one night, just so we could fly out on a plane large enough to handle our dog. Be advised that he isn’t THAT big, he’s just lanky. Much smaller than a horse.

Anyway - yes, we needed to make our travel plans fit around our dog, because there are fewer restrictions for humans. One such restriction is flight times, and this one makes sense if you’re a dog in cargo - no access to food, water, or grass - so dogs can only travel for 12 hours maximum.

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So we, Jupiter party of four, all flew together from Dallas Fort Worth to Seattle Tacoma. Two adults, one crated dog who occupied an entire luggage cart, and a four-year old. Oh, and seven suitcases. I’m not going to go into great detail about the difficulties I encountered while trying to move the luggage with my pre-schooler - but I will tell you two things. One - I definitely lost some faith in humanity that day. I was really surprised to see how many people just watched me struggle and drop luggage. One woman helped me for a bit, and I was very thankful. Where was Mister Jupiter? He was busy with the airline who literally lost our dog.

The second thing I learned is that if a singular adult needs to move two full luggage carts, it’s definitely possible. You just need to make a two-cart delta formation - stand between the back of both carts, you’ll need one hand on each to steer. Then press the fronts of the carts together, apply equal pressure to keep the two carts touching, and get moving! It’s a wide situation, but it’s effective. When a solo parent needs to move two full carts, I don’t mind making everyone get out of my way.

Oh, I guess we learned a third thing - we should have AirTagged Mike Dog. Clearly I don’t know anything about airport luggage logistics, but I also didn’t know that it was possible to lose a 60lb dog in the first place, but hey, what’s a life without lessons learned? Probably boring…I wouldn’t know. Mike Dog was eventually recovered, and was very happy to see us and use the faux grass.

Once we were all united, we parted again. Mister Jupiter took both boys and most of the luggage to the hotel via courtesy shuttle. I took the remaining baggage with me to get a rental car. By the time that I caught up with my guys, Mike Dog was very happy to just lay in bed. So I stayed with the little boys in our little house, and Mister Jupiter was tasked to swing by Target for diapers, microwave dinners, and adult beverages.

The next morning was earlier than the last according to the clock, but it felt later because our bodies were two hours off, so the 3am wake up felt like 5am. Remember our divide and conquer strategy? I helped Mister Jupiter get out of the hotel room without waking Kid Jupiter. He took two big suitcases and the dog, I went back to bed with five suitcases and a sleeping Kid. So we each had a lot of stuff and one little boy. Mister Jupiter’s early morning was good - and it actually went as planned, YAY!

This means that I haven’t seen Mister Jupiter since that morning. Kid Jupiter and I remained in Washington. Our lives paused entirely while we waited on his passport...and I’ll have more for you next week!

For today’s LadyJupiter.com update…the site is still up and running.

And lastly something domestic.

At the time of recording, Kid Jupiter and I are still waiting on his passport.

Please note that I said “at the time of recording” which is different from the publishing date of this episode, which is different from when you, dear listener, actually hear this. You are listening to past events, so if you’re a concerned friend or family member - just reach out and ask me for a real time update! This podcast will catch up to real time again, but I can’t be certain of when exactly. It’s fine.

Speaking of when…passports. Mister Jupiter was good to go months ago; his travel documents were current. My regular passport was still good, so I just needed a new photo and easily submitted my no-fee passport application. My shiny new passport was ready to pick up 48 days later.

Kid Jupiter doesn’t have a passport at all, so his official no-fee passport is his very first one. We’ve been waiting over 60 days for his. Our last update was that it’ll be another two weeks. And that was three weeks ago. Awesome.

So our divide and conquer agenda isn’t exactly our choice. Kid Jupiter and I are forced to wait it out in the United States because he is unable to travel out of the country. Mister Jupiter and I quickly agreed that I would stay with Two Legs, and he would travel on with Four Legs. Since Mister Jupiter is the active duty member, it makes significantly more sense for him to get there first and start setting things up. Largely because everything needs to be in his name anyway, so it was the obvious choice.

And that’s it for today’s episode. Show notes and transcript are available anytime; swing by LadyJupiter.com/podcast.
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I will talk to you when I can record next. 

—Bye for now!