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Craig slept like a log (no pun intended) with the leaves on his forehead. He had fallen asleep on his back (something rare for him) and when the alarm went off at 2 a.m., he was still in the exact same position. We were all ready to go by 2:55 when we heard the van honk its horn out in the street. We went outside and Antonio was finishing getting ready. Aida and
Rosa came out to say goodbye, huddled in their fleeces. We thanked them once again and said goodbye. Aida said that they would take Yupanqui to the hospital today or tomorrow. He had developed a fever and was once again unable to sleep. Poor kid! It was very sweet of Rosa and Aida to get up to see us off, and we hope that they were able to go right back to sleep afterwards.
We thought about the fact that it would definitely be an unusual day for Yupanqui. In addition to a trip to the hospital, we would be gone, Aida and Tayanta would be in Otavalo, Sisa would be at school, and Antonio would be in Quito for part of the morning. Yupanqui and Rosa would be by themselves. Hopefully Yupanqui would be able to get some good rest and enjoy the one-on-one time with his grandmother. We left the house at 3:03 a.m. Antonio sat up front keeping his driver friend company. We arrived at the airport shortly before 5 o'clock. This new airport is definitely closer to Morochos than the old airport had been. We said goodbye to Antonio and thanked him for everything. He reiterated that the next time we visit, he will have researched MS and will have some medicinal treatments lined up. We checked in at American Airlines, and the woman asked us if we would prefer to sit in an exit row, although it would be an aisle and middle seat instead of our standard window and middle. This sounded good to us, so we agreed. She printed out our boarding passes. We went through security and then stopped at Johnny Rockets for breakfast. we needed something in our stomachs. Craig got scrambled eggs with boacon and toast. I had pancakes with honey and sausages that resembled hot dogs. We also got orange juice. They were playing some fun '60's tunes, but whatever they were using to "randomly" play them wasn't random at all, and "Johnny B. Goode" got rather annoying after hearing it about 6 separate times. After that, we browsed around in some of the shops before settling down at our gate. The airport is only about a year old, and there are outlets and charging stations everywhere. I plugged in my netbook and started typing up my notes from the trip. We boarded our flight and were disappointed that not only were we not in an exit row as promised, we were near multiple babies who screamed throughout the entire flight. The flight took off on time at 8:40 a.m.They served us toasted turkey and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. When we arrived in Miami, we had a four hour layover. With Craig's MS, he can't always move the required distance as fast as is necessary to make a connection, so sometimes we have to resort to using a wheelchair. But since we had plenty of time today, he decided that he would walk this time. Craig walked at a comfortable pace, and we entered the immigration hall with stations for about 50 agents. All of these desks were empty except for three. We were all ushered to computer kiosks and told to scan in our passports. The machine then took a picturte of us and spit out a printed receipt. The receipt had all of our passport information as well as the the picture it had just taken. Both Craig's and mine had a big "X" across it. An employee monitoring the kislks rtold us that meant we had to go into the line to see an actual agent. So we had to stand in a line with all of the other peole who were rejected for unknown reasons by the machines. We were about 10th in line and there were only 3 agents working the whole hall. Nobody knew why they had been selected for manual processing. Meanwhile, two employees are just shooting the breeze about all this great booze that they are going to have at their party at the club, bro. This is the "face of our nation?" Sigh. The line was very slow moving. When we were finally called, the officer was pleasant, checked our passports, and sent us on our way.. We picked up our bags and then we went to re-check them. The employee took Craig's bag and put it on the conveyor belt, then he took the bags from people behind me and left mine there. Craig said he wanted to make sure the bag was processed before we walked away. They said not to worry about it, but still made no move to process it. What is it with this airport? Nothing makes any sense! When we finally got to security, the line wasn't that long. I think that it's because everyone was stuck in that immigration line. The plastic bins have various quotes about travel, and I selected my favorite once again: "'I found out long ago, it's a long way down the holiday road.' - Lindsay Buckingham". Great song, great movie, great memories with my former colleagues, and also incredibly accurate commentary on our experience today and every day we spend time at Miami International Airport. Concourse D was under construction and the food options were extermely limited. I got a turkey and swiss sandwich at starbucks, as well as a piece of iced lemon pound cake. The flight was on time at 6:00 p.m. When we arrived in Boston, we waited for our luggage and then had to retrieve our car. The garahe had been full, and they had forced us into their valet parking service (with no additional fee). We had no idea where our car would be. We stopped at the valet desk at Central Parking. Our keys were waiting there as promised, and the woman directed us to the seventh floor to retrieve our car. The car was right where they said it would be. We were out of the airport by 10 p.m., which meant we were able to get a good night's sleep before returning to work the next day. |
 Craig sleeps well with his traditional treatment  The new Mariscal Sucre International Airport outside of Quito  Breakfast at Johnny Rocket's  Security bin, Miami International Airport |
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