Monday February 25, 2008
We meet at 5:00am in the lobby of the Hotel Santo Domingo all somewhat clean. I mean, we all took showers, but we had to select the "cleanest" of our dirty clothes to wear today, an extra unplanned for travel day.
We have no trouble with immigration, outside of a crinkled forehead and raised eyebrow when they see we've already been stamped out the previous day. So, we make it to our gate for our 7:45am flight...only to have it delayed until 9:20am. Oh no, not again. This requires some of our traveling party to have to rebook their connectors yet again since they will miss it. Unreal.
And to add a splash of spice, a member of our party had lost his passport. Lost it. Gone. After quite a bit of begging and pleading on the phone with the U.S. embassy, INS, and other various governmental departments, it ended up that the fine folks at Hotel Santo Domingo FOUND it and drove the passport to the airport. Luckily the nerve-wracked missionary arrived at our gate with mere minutes to spare for boarding. Whew!!!
We finally make it to Miami, and at least we're on the mainland and we can DRIVE home if need be. Some more rebookings occur, some stand-by's are made, and most are denied. By 4:00pm I am the lone traveler in Miami, but I will land at home (in Greensboro, and not in Charlotte!) before most of the others do.
8:25pm and I'm boarding a plane for Greensboro. Can it be? Is it real? And at 10:45pm I touch down at Greensboro's airport: the final touch after two immensely stressful days of traveling and airports. A quick cab ride home (Kimberly has to get up at 4:00am for work, so I told her a cab would be fine for me...plus it's another receipt for the tax write-off!) and I stumble through our front door. At 11:15pm it's a quick removal of my shoes and dropping of my drawers as I pass out stinky and exhausted in bed with my beautiful wife and adoring dogs.
I am home.
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1 comment:
Well...If there is only one lesson learned from your mini-diary it is this: The harder you have to work, the smoother your day went and the more fun you have with your collegues at the end of that day. Your seemingly "easy" days involved the most turmoil. I love irony.
I admire your and your cohort's efforts to be a part of this team.
Sincerely,
Duke
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