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Home For Our Holidays!
As these web pages are being co-written by both of us, there will be times (which will be pretty obvious),
where the chronicles are being told from both perspectives.
It would be too difficult to mark the passages, but I’m sure that people who know us well will be able to work it out very easily!
Hope you all have fun travelling with us!!
Leaving Venezuela
Friday Nov 3 - After 18 months of being in Venezuela, we finally got a chance to take a much-needed vacation back to the US. Two glorious weeks of no power-outtages, phones that worked, roads with no donkeys...and all the fast-food we could consume!!
We arrived at Las Piedras Airport in Punto Fijo with plenty of time to catch the 8am flight out of Venezuela to Aruba. That 15 minute flight would enable us to meet our 9:50am connection on a REAL airline for the 2.5 hour trip to Miami. Simple you say??
Well of course our little 12 seater plane didn't arrive until 8:45am and to our amazement the pilot decided to get off and grab himself a quick coffee and a snack at the kiosk! Helen and I stood inside the departure lounge and watched in amazement as the departure time for our Aruba connection quickly approached and this Pilot stood at the little food counter chewing his greasy empanada and washing it down with coffee. Finally a quick ‘burp’ from the Pilot signalled departure; the plane was finally loaded and we departed at 9:15—only 1 hour and 15 minutes late—not bad!
Arriving Aruba
We finally arrived in Aruba at 9:30 which left us a whopping 20 minutes to check-in, clear customs and change terminals. Of course we were too late, the flight had been boarded and was almost ready to depart, so American Airlines didn't want to check us in. Helen however had been in this situation A LOT—I was inexperienced at her fine art of ‘conning your way onto planes’ so I stepped back and watched the master go to work. She began with an exasperated look, followed it with a quick explanation of our circumstances, then fell to the floor and began to sob. This charade succeeded either in finding compassion in the ticket counter attendant’s heart—or the realization set in that if she didn’t get this crazy Aussie away from her counter it was going to be a VERY long day. Either way, the attendant radioed for the gate to hold the plane for two late-comers. (It was such a desperate situation that Helen even contemplated using the hurt ‘leg -limping' routine which always worked in Sydney, however it wasn’t needed. See, a real pro at these things always has a back-up plan!)
Leaving Aruba
We ran for our lives through Aruba airport, around early passengers window shopping at the duty-free shops, jumping over sniffer-dogs and sniffer-clerks and finally got to the last gate (Mark gave me the most god awful look when I suggested we stop to do a little duty free shopping...go figure!!)
The first gate we arrived at had a US customs official who asked why we were late. All we had to say was that we had come from Venezuela and he rolled his eyes and said 'Well that was your first mistake!' Like he was telling us something we didn't know?? We cleared customs and immigrations, got to our gate and were surprised to see an airline attendant standing at the entrance of the plane patiently waiting!
Upon boarding at 10am, we avoided the evil glances of all the waiting passengers and snuggled into our American Airlines seat, wiped the dripping perspiration from our brows, and gave a silent 'thank you' to Him! Without this connection, we would have had to wait a whole day for the next flight.
The realization set in..We were ACTUALLY on our way…next stop Miami and then onto Kansas City via Dallas..expected arrival time..7pm that night!! USA..here we come!!
Arriving Miami
Arrival to Miami Airport was nothing short of spectacular! I know that Helen and I must have seemed like a pair of refugees to other passengers as they tried to scurry around us. We stood in the main airport lounge and looked around like a pair of ignorant immigrants. Our senses were being bombarded with the sights and sounds of things that worked. An escalator that was operating!! It was actually carrying people up to the next floor and the one next to it was descending carrying people down to our level. The air conditioner was on and working. The airport was a comfortable temperature. The airline departure and arrival screens WORKED and actually had the CORRECT information on them! I remember commenting to Helen in absolute amazement that if we missed our flight I wouldn’t mind spending a day here…it was much more comfortable than what we had left behind.
Helen spotted a Burger King outlet and set off like a shot to order herself a burger. I caught up with her just as she reached the counter and the attendant looked up and said, “May I help you?” We both stared at the attendant with open mouths and looks of amazement. We glanced at each other and then back to the attendant who repeated, “May I help you?” That was too much, Helen and I broke into hysterical laughter. Helen said, “I’m sorry…its been so long, could you say it again?” The attendant smiled and stated, “You two must have just arrived from Venezuela. OK, here it comes again, “May I help you?” With a contented sigh of relief, Helen ordered her meal, I had a coke and the two of us sat at a table and enjoyed our first half hour back in civilization. Of course ordering a burger from Burger King never goes without incident for Helen, and it was made without the bacon she had ordered..god forbid!! She quickly took it back, pointed out the oversight and asked them to please add the bacon. She was horrified to see the counter attendant actually toss that burger in the bin and proceed to make her a new one!! That NEVER would have happened in Venezuela. In fact, we have had experiences in McDonalds there where we have returned fries that were collected at one drive through window and returned at the next as they weren’t part of our order, only to see them tossed back into the french fry tray! This transition was going to spoil us rotten!
We caught our flight from Miami to Dallas and spent the whole time comparing thoughts on our first experiences back in the U.S. The connection from Dallas to Kansas City came off with no hitches and we arrived at my home….Kansas City…Kansas City here I come…back to where I started from!!! |
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