Off to Rio!
For me, stress levels go up exponentially the days before a trip. The last few days are a mad rush of finishing up work projects, trip bookings, and packing. I ended up packing for this trip in about 45 minutes.
Our flight to Miami was late. We had to sprint through Terminal D to make our connection. Fortunately, airplane maintenance meant that the flight to Rio was late as well, so we were able to make it. The guy at the counter assured us that our bags would NOT make the flight and that they would have to be delivered to us in Rio. Wonderful.
Before going to sleep, I set my watch ahead three hours (never realized Rio was so far east), filled out my customs forms, and had a meal of relative delicious airplane lasagna. The maintenance was obviously for something other than the air conditioning, which has been blasting all flight and making the cabin downright frigid.
Thanks to Brazilians behind me swinging on my chair like angry gorillas, I never achieved REM sleep. Waking up was just a matter of opening my eyes. Doug, who took some sleeping pills a few hours ago, is sleeping like a baby.
Peeking out the window, I see a big-ass wing and a blanket of white cloud. Brazil’s under all that, I think. We should be in Rio in less than an hour!
My name is Jeff. I'm a