Day 129 - Leaving the Garden
I woke up with a pep in my step today. A tingling feeling of excitement as I knew this was my last day. Although it was the last day, I wanted to skip out on breakfast and continue this trend of trying to not worry too much about my stomach. As my day got started, I began slowly by making some coffee and talking to Sabine. We talked a little bit about our plans in Vienna and the things she needed to bring. Before I realized it though, it was time to head out.
As I arrived at the lobby & met up with everyone though, my tingle joyfulness got hit with some serious sadness. Jaeger Bailey, a snowboarder who I grew up competing at the same events throughout the area, and he made it as a snowboarder in the industry took his own life on Christmas. Reading this information shook me to the core. It’s never the ones you expect. He was always a happy go-getter kind of guy. In the last year, I’ve realized that I am capable of very dark thoughts, and to see what those dark thoughts can do to you scares me. I’m not sure if he was super lonely or something about the holidays, but whatever it was that coupled his experience I’m deeply saddened.
Nevertheless, the group went up for another day of riding. A bit windier than I was expecting, as the gondola slowly made it’s way up the mountain. Thankfully the temperature wasn’t too harsh. Today though the kids wanted to actually ski around the mountain, so we obliged. Playing some fun carving games & showing them how to do a Polish Donut. The kids were ecstatic. As the morning wrapped up and we headed into lunch, Williamo came up and asked me what time my flight was. I told him & he left to tell Wang. A little later, Wang came by to ask how I was getting to the airport. Two hours later, we were on the road. Although not exactly the situation I was expecting. I originally thought he had just ordered a taxi for me, but for the first section, Wang was driving. As we arrived in Zhangjiakou, we waited at the train station and picked up a random guy who happened to be friends with the driver. We continued on to Beijing and it took a bit longer than we expected. Traffic really is a pain in the ass here. As we got into town, Wang was dropped off at a subway stop, and we continued on towards the airport. Since roads were so bad, we ended up staying off the highways and taking side streets the entire way and eventually making it to the airport around 8 pm.
One very positive thing about today is that I was able to check-in for my flight super early. In the states the maximum amount of time you can check-in before your flight is 4 hours, today I checked in closer to 6 hours. After fully getting checked in & playing the fun game of taking your boots out to get under the weight level, but then put your boots back in before dropping it off. I went out to take a few more photos of the airport as well before making my way to customs. Thankfully an uneventful time there as I headed straight for the lounge. Stayed in the lounge all the way until my flight boarded at 2:15 am.
