July 1

Up at 3, in the cab at 3:30, at the airport at 3:50 for a 6 am flight. International flight, so you are supposed to be there two hours early, right? Well, today, it was a joke. First, none of the check-in counters were open when we arrived…they opened at 4. Then the doors to the customs area didn’t open till 4:30…and customs itself didn’t open till 5! So we wasted an hour standing around, and could have slept till 4. Everything went smoothly (other than the airports being crowded, as it was the first travel day of the July 4^th holiday) until we got to Atlanta. We boarded our plane on time, only to be told that the plane needed “scheduled maintenance” which would take 30 minutes, so we were sent back to the terminal. As soon as we got back to the terminal, we were told that the maintenance would really take an hour. So we settled in for a one hour delay. Halfway through our hour, strobes started flashing in the terminal, and a recorded announcement came on, in a very serious voice, repeating “MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. AN EMERGENCY HAS BEEN REPORTED IN THE BUILDING. WHILE THIS IS BEING VERIFIED, PLEASE STAND BY FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS”. This repeated about 10 times, quit for a few minutes, started up again, quit, started again…in the meantime, the next flight to Panama City, which was supposed to leave an hour AFTER us, boarded, and our departure time got pushed forward another half hour. The emergency announcement came and went about 5 times, and was quite irritating, but we finally boarded our plane and arrived back home, about two hours behind schedule.

It was 9PM, 87 degrees, with 90% humidity. Ah, home.