Friday, September 18th, 2015

So, right after we got into bed last night Teresa informed me she isn’t going to school with Laura this morning and Laura isn’t going either – she’s coming with us to the airport.

Among today’s new US movie releases I would like to see Everest (7.7), Maze Runner: Scorch Trials (7.2), and especially Pawn Sacrifice (7.4) - another movie about Bobby Fischer.  I just hope they get the chess part right.  Already I see a mistake in the Trailer where they show moves like P-C4 where only c4 (always lower case) is needed.  In fact, at the time when Bobby Fischer played, c4 (algebraic notation) would have been shown in descriptive notation as P-QB4.

I’m finishing up my packing and leaving in a couple of hours for the airport so there’s won’t be any posts over the next week.

We left the finca at 11:30 and Walter was waiting for us just up from the finca.  He put my suitcase in the front seat and we all climbed into the back.  

On our way downtown Teresa suggested we go to San Diego CC instead.  I agreed because it’s about 15 minutes closer to the airport than downtown.  When we go to the mall a guy grabbed my suitcase and put it into a private car.  (I thought we were taking a bus but I think Teresa was worried about being late.)  We got to the airport right at 12:30, 3 hours before my flight.  I paid the driver 60,000 pesos where it would have cost 27,000 had we taken the airport bus.  I opened my suitcase and exchanged my sunglasses for my jacket.  I checked my suitcase without any difficulty and the lady told me to come back at 2pm to start my personal check-in process.

We went upstairs and had lunch – I had the Caesar Salad again, Teresa had something with mushrooms and Laura had some pasta.  With drinks the total came to 68,800 (about $23).  Mine was good but next time I think I’ll try something different.

Back downstairs at 2pm I gave the remainder of my pesos to Teresa and said goodbye to both of them.  They scanned my personal belongings and then Customs verified my passport.  

I still had an hour wait for my flight so I checked out a couple stores.  One had bags of Colombian coffee and I was sorry I didn’t have any money because it would have made a good present for my kids.

The flight was a Boeing 737-700 that left 15 minutes late with only half the seats filled.  As we made our approach to the Panama City airport suddenly the jet picked up speed and started climbing.  When I looked out the left windows I saw nothing due to the heavy cloud cover.  When I looked out the right windows I clearly saw the ground and the sea.  Very interesting experience.  We did a go-around and when we finally landed at 5:30 - 45 minutes later than scheduled.  

I walked around the Tocumen airport looking for the Margaritaville restaurant I visited 3 ½ years ago.  While before the airport was very small, now it was huge – and cold because in some places they had the air conditioning turned up so high.

We were scheduled to leave at 6:45 from Gate 7 and arrive in Chicago at 12:15am Saturday.  I had skipped the offer of a snack in the plane because I wanted to have something like nachos in the restaurant but I couldn’t find it.  I stopped at a small store where I bought a coffee and muffin for $8.  She tried to give me some Panamanian change but I convinced her to give me mostly American change.  The extra local coin I put in their tip jar.

I noticed they changed my gate from 7 to 1 so I decided to find it first.  It was nearby so I sat down in a quiet corner by one of the gates and had my coffee and muffin.  The sky was dark and there was heavy rain.

Then I noticed they changed the boarding and departure times to 8:15 and 9pm so we would be arriving in Chicago at more like 2am.  My problem was I couldn’t get a strong enough wi-fi connection and my emails to my son merely went to the Outbox in my iPad.  We finally boarded at 9:30 and left at 10:05.  This was a larger plane a Boeing 737-800 but it was still only half full.  (If this had been an American Airline plane I think they would have cancelled it and put all of us on another plane tomorrow so it would be full.  What I like about Copa Airlines is they don’t do that and their food is better.)  I tried to sleep on the 5 hour flight but it’s just too noisy for me.   They served us dinner of our choice of pasta or beef with mashed potatoes.  I had the latter and it was a little chewy – I guess we’re still too close to Colombia.  Lol.

We got in at 3am and by the time I got through customs (it only took me 1 minute but there was a long line ahead of me) and I got my bag it was 4am.  I found the pay phones to call my son but it cost 50 cents and I only had 45 cents.  I went upstairs to arrivals and found a lady to give me change for a dollar.  Back downstairs I called my son and 20 minutes later he arrived and I put my suitcase in the back seat.

By the time we got to his apartment and I got to bed it was 5am.  I took my sleeping pills and fell asleep quickly.

T-shirt of the day: I think I’m paranoid.