To Buenos Aires

Monday - January 9:

So the day started with Karen asking, "are you going to wear the shirt you wore last night?"

I replied, "Yes, I'll change when we arrive in Buenos Aires."  How often do you get to say that?

The hotel shuttle driver got us smoothly to the airport, we glided through security (having, among other things, become one of the TSA permanent approved a month or so ago) and went to our gate.  The flight was non-eventful (though Karen would note that it did have some bumps).  We arrived at Dallas - Fort Worth on time and had a 3 hour layover (reduced from 6 hours through the involuntary changing of the original departure city from Portland to Seattle.

Since we had international business class tickets, we were able to gain entry to American Airlines Admiral Club (though there was a First Class Dining room which they did not allow business class riff-raff to enter, allowing only First Class people or real Admirals).  We comfortably spent the next few hours there.

We ambled towards are gate almost an hour ahead of time and were surprised to see that they had already got the boarding process in full swing, they had gone way beyond the "unfortunate people with young children" and the "people who need help they won't get", past those "lucky people who sit towards the front with seats that turn into beds" and "people who fly all the time so have lots of credits and people who own a military uniform" and they were all the way to the "tired, poor and hungry yearning to be free" - we boarded with them even though we were able to stop at the comfy seats while they just shook their heads at us with clear envy.

We snuggled into our travel forts, the only real problem being that the cocoon-like structures did not lend themselves to conversation between Karen and I.  Still, the seats were comfortable by airplane standards, making you feel like an astronaut readying for takeoff.

Since I was able to lie flat, I was also able to fall asleep (only waking up to the occasional bathroom trip and to answer Karen's inquiries as to whether or not I was asleep).

As we approached Buenos Aires they woke us up for breakfast.

At the airport, we were greeted by our luggage after an appropriate delay, made it through customs and then located our friends from the UK who had first suggested the trip now a year ago, Roger and Helen.

It was an amazing feat of coordination and luck, both couples arriving with all of their luggage from 6,000 miles apart (Oregon to UK) and traveling respectively about 7,000 miles each to get to Buenos Aires.

We had arrived!!!