After one too many trips through the washing machine, it was time to take a trip to the nearest U.S. consulate office to get a new passport. It was a relatively uneventful trip except for the return.
My first plane was an hour and a half late which made getting to the second plane on time a bit of challenge. Because we were late arriving, the airport had two buses waiting for us to taxi us to the arrival area instead of the usual one.(Twenty minutes until the check in counter closes) The challenge was to select the one that would leave first. I chose wrong and that cost me about five minutes.(15 minutes until check in counter closes) When my bus finally began making its way toward the arrival area we drove past another plane parked about 20 yards from the one I just got disembarked. I thought to myself, "That is probably my next plane." After roughly a 1/4 of a mile ride in the bus they let us off where we had a roughly 200 yard jaunt to the arrival gates. (10 minutes until check in counter closes) Fortunately, I am fairly familiar with this airport now and knew exactly where to go and had no checked baggage, so up the escalator and through the crowd to the check in counter. (7 minutes until the check in counter closes) Luckily there were only 3 people in front of me and 5 check in counters were open so I made it to the check in with 3 minutes to spare. The lady looked at her watch and gave me a look that said you better not waste any time getting through the security check in.
I looked at my ticket and wouldn't you know the gate that I had to go to was the farthest one away. So through security and off to the gate I go. (5 minutes to boarding) A couple of hundred yards later I arrived at the boarding area with exactly enough time to use the restrooom and take one of the last spots in the line to board the bus to the airplane. Roughly a 1/2 mile ride on the bus and I arrived 20 yards from where I started and boarded the plane that was parked beside my first plane.
While it was a long 20 yards to travel, the 20 minutes it took to get there flew by.
? of the day for a test of your cardiovascular system, have you ever missed a flight?
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2 comments:
um...yeah...involved a 12 hour dealy in Kiev, Ukraine - 10 hr flight to NY where of course my connection left 24 hrs earlier...spent the night sitting on the sidewalk waiting for a bus to take me to the overbooked hotel, where I spent the remainder of the night waiting - on the sidewalk - for a taxi to take me to another airport, where I waited (on the sidewalk, of course) for the airport to actually open so I could beg for a spot on the next flight...a nightmare I don't care to repeat...glad you made your flight! :)
PLEASE don't feed this passport to the Great White Whale...I would hate for you not to be able to come home because of a too clean passport!!!
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