We can’t do anything the easy way. We planned a trip back to the PNW to get vaccinated. This means flying, unvaccinated, and all the stress that entails. We’d made our reservations, and the vaccine FINALLY began to be available in BCS. The Basha retired – with all the red tape and hullaballu that goes with that. Lots of unforeseen (by me) loose ends – company laptops, COBRA, exit interviews, etc. Stressful. We planned ahead with a direct flight and we packed light, carry-on only, for PNW Junuary (yes, it is a thing). We found a place to store my car near the airport. Everything seemed to be in order.
We thought it would be GREAT to start this adventure on my birthday. LOL. 😂
All seemed to be going great. We got out of the house early and to the airport with plenty of time. We had DOZENS of masks with us, hand sanitizer, clear shields. Well… the shields were CRAP. Hard to see out of and constantly fogging. We had to figure out what to do about the immigration card (FMM) when we are residents leaving instead of tourists entering. The airport was FULL of mask-hole tourists who live in a universe of one.
The shining star of the airport experience was finding a VIP lounge where we could quietly pass the couple of hours before our flight. Bottomless bubbles and snacks! THIS is a great birthday present. ✨
We boarded on time. Our seats were in ROW 1!! Thank you frequent flyer miles (and careful pre-planning)!
And then… we sat. First at the gate. Then on the tarmac. For nearly 2HOURS!! It seems we had a “low fuel pressure” warning light and could not clear for take-off. The crew were all American, and the service crew was Mexican, so there was a LOT of difficulty in communication. As we took off (FINALLY), we were informed that, due to the delay, we could could not fly directly to our PNW destination because Customs there would already be closed for the evening. That meant that our direct flight now had to make a stop – in L.A. – and *hopefully* we could get a flight crew out, because the delay in Mexico meant that the flight crew would “time out” (have to stop working) before we could land at our destination.
UGH – could it be at a WORSE airport than LAX? We landed in international, had to clear immigration, pick up any checked luggage (we flew carry-on) and WALK from the international terminal to one of the domestic terminals. It was a LOOOONNGGG walk. And, we had purchased duty-free, which meant that we had to check at least one bag and put the duty-free in it. There go our “best laid plans”. Finally back on the plane, we had to wait again. The replacement pilot was running late.
By the time we arrived in the PNW, it was well after midnight, not the reasonable 9PM we were expecting. Our rental car reservation had expired, so we had no car waiting for us. Good thing Uber is easy to get at the airport. By the time we arrived at our rental abode we were exhausted and cranky! But the silver lining was that we still made it in time for Fauci Ouchie #1 – by less than 12 hours! 😀