Driving away
As I arrived at the hotel last night/tonight (it's 1AM), I spent a few moments trying to unload my two bags I had in the seat with me. My backpack caught on the seatbelt connector, making the easy exit from the shuttle van much more of an ordeal than it needed to be.
Fortunately, my bag struggle gave the driver enough time to walk around the van and open the door for me.
After exiting the van, I walked to the back of the van for my other bag. To my surprise, the driver walked back around to the front of the van. I thought this odd, but went ahead and opened the back of the van to get my other bag.
I had my hand on my bag just as the driver put the van into gear and started driving away.
I quickly clenched and held it still as the van pulled away out from under the bag. The other passengers in the van, the ones with three other bags in the back of the van, the van with the back door wide open, started hollering at the driver to stop. Two car lengths later, he stopped the van.
In a daze, he hopped out of the van and walked around to the back. I'm not sure what he was thinking when I tipped him anyway.
Somehow I feel this is going to signal how this trip is going to go: not the way I want or expect it to go, but everything will work out just fine.