Airports
Throughout the year the majority of my road trips have been to visit my Mom in Las Vegas, Nevada. When she’s in town I’ll visit her once a month (She’s quite the traveler now that she’s retired.) That’s why I was so keen to ensure I went somewhere for New Year's — New Mexico. That trip was only a little over a month ago, and I’ve done two 5 hour trips since then.
The first trip was not fully expected, well neither was the second trip, but both trips were made for my family. Let’s take it back to October of 2022 when my Mom went home to the Philippines. For whatever reason, the travel agent didn’t book a flight from Vegas to LA, where her flight was leaving from LAX to the Philippines, or from LA to Vegas when she returned back to the States. So, my Mom asked me if I would pick her up in Vegas — From Long Beach — and bring her to LAX. At first, I said no and that I would just find her a flight to LAX instead. After a quick search, I realized that scheduling a flight that didn’t arrive in LA too early or too close to departure was not an easy task. I also realized that I normally visit my Mom before she leaves for the Philippines anyway. So I decided to do as she asked and spent the weekend in Vegas before we drove back to LA to drop her off at the airport.
That was October.
While in the Philippines she said that she would ask my cousin to find her a flight from LA to Vegas since her flight was arriving late at night. The problem there was that there were no flights leaving LA the same night, and my Mom would have to stay at the airport, or I would still have to pick her up and she would stay with me for the night (which is fine), but sure enough, I told her that I would pick her up and bring her home. So after being back home for only two weeks, I headed to LAX on the 23rd of January to pick up my Mom.
Her plane landed at 8:47 pm which gave me a bit of relief that we wouldn’t arrive in Vegas too late. That all changed of course when I looked at my phone and saw it was 9:30, then 10:00, and I still didn’t see my Mom emerge from the tunnel at the Terminal B of Tom Bradley International. Turns out one of her suitcases didn’t make it on the carousel and was one of the last to be put on. Mom came out at 10:45 pm. After some hugs and kisses and a trip to the bathroom, we were off.
We made it out of LA proper in 30 min. That’s practically from the pacific ocean to just about San Dimas. For those who have heard the horror of stories of LA traffic, during “normal” hours, that drive is at least 2 hours.
Well into the drive I no longer worried about my Mom being up too late realizing that she was still on Philippine time —she was wide awake. If there was any worry to be had, it should have been for me since it was way past my bedtime —I was prepared with a snack and some energy drinks —I only needed one.
During the darkest time of the night, cruising around 80mph on I-15, Mom and I got into a deep conversation about our past and our upbringings, hers and mine. The conversion was partially healing, but I did hold back a bit and didn’t want to dive too deep into certain subjects. Nothing worse than seeing your Mom cry —So I changed the subject and we laughed. We got into town around 2 am and decided to stop at Roberto's for some late-night Mexican food. We ate and called it a night —I stayed in vegas till Saturday and drove home.
Three days later…
I would get a call from my Mom who was now in Salinas, CA saying that my Uncle passed. While we were in Vegas there were already talks and arrangements being made to go to Salinas to see my Uncle who at the time was on life support. My Mom, Cousin, Aunts, and Uncle were slated to fly to Salinas towards the end of the week, and I was planning on driving up on the weekend. Those plans changed when my cousin J spoke with my Mom Monday night advising that they were thinking of taking my Uncle off of life support.
With that, the family changed their flights and they were all in Salinas by Tuesday late afternoon —30 min later Uncle moved on —30 min later My Mom Called me. I drove up to Salinas the next morning.
The drive up was nostalgic and memories of my move to San Francisco made me miss The bay Area. I arrived in Salinas around 2:30 pm. Walking into the house I was greeted with smiles and hugs from faces I haven’t seen in years. It is such a bittersweet event, death — Family you haven’t seen in years come from all over to support and grieve.
Admittedly I wasn’t exactly sure what the schedule of events was going to be. I packed up expecting to leave on Sunday, and I ended up staying for a week and a half.
Normally I write in a sequence of events as one would when telling a story, and as I have thus far. This trip had many events as one may imagine with a death. Even more when a family as large as mine, doesn’t get to see each other regularly. The dilemma here in writing this story is that those events and memories are personal and private.
So I’m skipping a lot of parts and focusing on the drive and my relationship with airports.
What I will say about the parts I’m leaving out, there were a lot of tears, laughter, stories of the past, and food. When Filipinos get together, we eat. I was honored to be a part of a lot of moments surrounding the services for my Uncle and I was happy that I was able to be there for my family.
During my time in Salinas, I drove to 3 different airports and if you add that to the LAX/Vegas trip I did the week prior, that would make 4 different California airports in 3 weeks. Los Angeles International, Monterey Regional Airport, San Jose International Airport, and San Francisco International Airport. I’m not sure how or when it began, but I’m the unofficial airport shuttle for the family. No matter what state I’m in.
The drive to SFO was more nostalgia. I also made it there and back in 3 hrs, which was supposed to be 4hrs —apparently, I’m also fast. After dropping one of my cousins, A, at SFO, I took my younger cousin, JY to my old place in Millbrae — not more than a 7-8 minute drive from the airport.
Oh, how I love driving up Millbrae Ave. through the winding steep roads. I loved that location as much as I love my Long Beach location.
That was Friday.
Sunday morning, I put air in my tires, hugged everyone, and drove home. Part of the way, Google Maps, took me through some country roads where I was met with a herd of sheep crossing the road. “Sheep Sheeeep” is all I kept saying out loud. In retrospect, the sheep crossing the road was a symbolic moment for my trip and for my Uncle—Crossing over I know you're finally resting in peace, Tito.
