In the Lansing Airport, Overnight

I'm on my way to Boston to conduct a Memorial Service for Laura Ross, an old-time radical comrade and long-time friend who supported me in my career as a cultural worker and in my decision to go to seminary and become a minister. The service is sponsored by the Communist Party and the Center for Marxist Education, two institutions which were built and supported by Laura over many years, and will be held at the Community Church of Boston where I was the minister from 1998 to 2005. I am looking forward to being with old political friends even as I am beginning to feel my sadness at Laura's death more acutely.

I need to get back to Flint to be able to conduct our Sunday service, and the onlyway I can do that (and conduct the Memorial Service) is to fly into Detroit Metro Airport on Saturday night at 11:30, and then drive home. But the only way I can afford the trip without a Saturday night stay over is to fly this crazy route I was able to book: to fly from Lansing to O'Hare and to Providence, and then to fly back from Providence to Washington, DC and then to Detroit Metro. So the trick is to get between Lansing and Detroit . . .

I discovered there is a shuttle between Metro and East Lansing, and so I drove to Detroit and caught the shuttle. I was pleased to park on the "Blue Ramp" which is connected to the Smith Terminal by a crossover bridge. But the work in the Blue Ramp is not quite finished, and there are no directions for getting to the Terminal, so I found myself on the telephone with the Michigan Flyer people trying to get help finding the shuttle bus. The walk from where I parked to the terminal was far longer than I ever imagined, and even when I saw the bus from the crossover bridge, I had a hard time figuring out how to get downstairs to the street.

Thankfully, the driver called me to walk me through those last few minutes, and the bus ride was very pleasant. As there were only four of us on the bus, and as we were all going to East Lansing, we didn't stop in Jackson or Ann Arbor and arrived early.

In East Lansing, I took a minute to get dinner (at Big Ten Burrito) and then took a cab to the airport. The cab driver was a young Cuban man named Pedro, and we had a fun time talking about Cuba and the punitive travel restrictions on Cuban families. He also shared some thoughts about his church, and tithing, and his desire to prosper in this country. It was a pleasant ride that I thoroughly enjoyed.

At the airport, I found a corner in which to sit, and slouch, and eventually fall asleep for a few hours. I was the first person in line at 5:00 a.m. when the ticket window opened, and had a quick bite to eat when the little cafe upstairs opened a few minutes after 5. Boarded the short trip to Chicago at 5:40, and caught naps throughout the rest of the morning.

My mom picked me up in at the Providence Airport (in Warwick) and took me home to Riverside. Now I'm going to catch a nap.

About the sunrise . . . I flew out of Lansing in the dark, and then saw the sun rise in Chicago at about 6:40 a.m., a time that would be "normal" in my East Coast experience. (Sunrise in Flint was at 7:20-something.) It felt great! Except that I was so shot from sleeping in the airport.

Great day.