A Short 8-Hour Layover – at Home

An eight-hour layover sounds like a long time, doesn’t it? Until the to-do’s during this layover include:

• Unpacking from one business trip
• Packing for another business trip
• Catching up with the spouse
• Going through the mail
• Having a glass of wine
• Sleep
• Waking up
• Shower, dress and eating
• Departing for the airport

… all while having this layover at home.

This is my second of such layovers in the past two weeks and is not something I want to repeat very often. It’s exhausting.

Sure, I could fly directly to my next city though that would mean a change fee for my ticket. I had the earlier part of the week planned weeks ago with a round-trip ticket from Orlando to Philly on US Air. Additional travel for this week arose recently for Orlando to Houston (United) and Dallas (Southwest) which necessitated last-minute tickets.

Sleeping in my own bed, even for a few hours, along with changing out the dirty clothes for clean, is what I prefer over changing my ticket to head straight to Houston … thus my short 8-hour layover at home.

What does this home layover look like:

10:00pm: Arrive home from the airport; catch up with my husband

10:15pm: Unpack dirty clothes, pack fresh clothes. Change out shoes and jewelry.

10:30pm: Go through the mail while having a glass of wine.

10:45pm: Start writing this diary.

11:15pm: Read a few pages of a book while trying to get to sleep.

4:00am:  Can’t sleep, mind is racing. Shower, dress, coffee and breakfast.

6:00am: Head back to the airport (50 minute drive; 8:00am flight). 

Phew! I’ll catch a few winks of sleep on the plane, I hope, and think about being back home in 64 hours. The coffee consumption is going to be high today.

At least my next layover at home is longer — an entire 2 days!