I'm off to Madrid

John the Wonderful, the best roommate in the world, dragged himself out of his warm bed at 2 am this morning to give me a ride to the Portland airport.

First thing I did was check in where I learned it was a good thing I had prepared my pacer poles for checking, as they were not allowed in the flight. 

Next thing was to find coffee and a whole bunch of us were unhappy to find out nothing opened until 4 am!

So my bags and I sat down at the nearest Starbucks and waited. 

Soon, there was coffee. Hooray!

My flight was full but I had paid for seats and priority boarding so it was a snap. Soon I was settled in my seat with my normal 'flying hear' put on. 

I actually felt ok when we arrived in Dallas. I had booked a Minute Suite for the long layover, after calling and being assured it was fragrance free. 

But guess what. 

It was NOT!

In fact, within a short time I was overwhelmed by the scent of highly perfumed laundry product and discovered, to my horror, a busy laundry room just doors from my tiny suite. 

It's a long story but in the end I had to get the hell out of there. They charged me for the one hour I was there, which I thought was bull pucky, but I was feeling too sick to argue. 

Here is a selfie of Annie after being exposed to fragranced laundry detergent. Not a pretty sight. 

Look at those swollen eyes.  Aren't they lovely!?  

I am now at my gate with three more hours to wait, trying not to focus on the migraine that is beginning to raise its ugly head in the background. I'm chugging strong coffee and I've washed out my nose and I've taken three ibuprofen. Sometimes if I catch the exposure early I can head off the worse symptoms. 

I'm praying my head will clear. If not, and if this blows up into a full exposure episode, I do have two nights booked in Madrid so if I have to, I can stay in bed. But I'm feeling positive. 

 I have a 9 hour flight ahead of me and it's an overnight flight. I'm looking forward to walking the Camino Mozarabe from Malaga. 

I'm a little scared my pack is too heavy and I'm not in shape. But I'll take it slow and steady. The terrain is stunning. 

I guess that's it. I'll check in tomorrow once o arrive in Madrid. 

Hasta luego!

Annie