<p>Basically, the Thumper plan with 2 parents, six suitcases, Southwest Airline (or whoever doesn’t charge for baggage - a situation now in flux among the airlines). This was for S-2, the youngest and last, 3,000 miles away. </p>
<p>One tweak: we indulged in extra days, but not as a couple. Instead, we had a last hurrah vacation, just the 3 of us, in a nearby city of great interest, BEFORE orientation. It was truly memorable. We know he won’t return after college as his profession will be out West. </p>
<p>We 3 all decompressed and separated the leaving-of-home from the starting-of-college with those lovely 3 days (in San Diego, lots to do). By the time he got to Orientation, he was on West Coast time and very much ready. We were all well-rested and had a good experience at Orientation. </p>
<p>After Orientation, we parents flew back home pretty quickly. By plan, we didn’t sleep much that night, but saved a night’s hotel fee. We hugged goodbye around 9 p.m. (college’s deadline), drove ourselves 3 hours back to the original airport where we’d rented the car, snoozed a few hours on that parking lot, returned the car, took the earliest 6 a.m. flight home, slept most of the way home on two planes. </p>
<p>In sophomore year, S-2 had earned enough from a summer job at home to buy a good used car here with our help. Then, since I’d never driven cross-country in my life, S and I took 5 days to drive it together, and I flew home solo. That was great for sophomore year; I couldnt’ have handled it freshman year, though. In that second year, he filled the back of his car with Stuff for a friend starting at UCLA from his former high school. </p>
<p>Since then, he’s just come and gone himself by plane.</p>