Travel Day

We left Alden Il, at 9:00 am, via a taxi driven by "PK" an Indian from Punjab. He suggested "PK" as an acceptable way to refer to him, apparently his given name was too much for Americans to pronounce. He was a little fuzzy on our area, but once we got him to route 47, he knew what he was doing. We had a little time to talk, and Deb drew out that he had been in the States for 11 years. He was married and had two sons. He grew up on a farm in India, which was still a working farm, and he found that Woodstock suited him because of its farming orientation. He has been to Brooklyn, NY, and down town Chicago and he very much did not like it. We got down to Midway Airport in plenty of time to wait for our plane.
We got checked in by a busy man who kept getting calls for Delta Cargo. Since he was not a Delta Cargo clerk, and he was very busy, and the caller kept calling back as quickly as they could hit re-dial, he was getting kind of short with the caller. I can't blame him. But he did get us all checked in and we were off to security. Note: Delta doesn't have a Cargo area in Midway.
I have to say that the TSA, seems to be more of a full employment scheme than a real terrorist prevention squad. But we went through the whole drama. I wear suspenders, so I had to be wanded. The fellow who did was joking with me that I was lucky because this station was normally handled by a "BIG black girl. Real BIG. " I came back with "but she's sweet." and he laughed.
We finally got through, and after tucking our clothes in and putting on our shoes we ambled off to check it out.
Midway Airport is a nice little airport, on the south side of Chicago. Brick bungalows line the streets right across from the airport. Once, an airliner skidded past the end of the runway and collided with a car. It's that close to the neighborhood.
We ate lunch in Midway at a place that made hot sandwiches, and we both liked them. I noticed that several stewardesses, and pilots were eating there, so I think it was the best. I only mention this because in Atlanta we ate supper and were not happy. The joints in Atlanta all had expensive and not very tasty food. Deb had sweet and sour chicken, and I had a b.l.t. wrap. We both got stringy pieces of meat stuck between our teeth. Eating and waiting are pretty much what you do on a travel day. And that is what we did.
I avoid the airline free pop and coffee, because: a) I don't like using the bathroom while bouncing around. b) I don't like wearing coffee or pop. If I do get a drink, I try to chug it down, so that it can't spill.
Deb had a rum and coke and had a little trouble with it. She got half way through her drink, and started to feel the alcohol, so she didn't want to chug the rest. She is a real light weight drinker, by the way. When the plane hit a bump in the air, she got rum and coke all over herself, her book and her paper work.
Arrival in San Jose was at 9:05 pm which is one hour later than our local time which would be 10:05 PM. So after 13 hours of travel, we were both tired. We wanted to get our luggage and clear customs/ immigration. The Costa Rican government has the system set up very nicely. So, we did get all of our luggage, and cleared the official part of the trip without any adventures.
We grabbed a luggage cart at the baggage claim which helped immensely with our mountain of bags. But when we got to the exit, we had to give it up to a helpful young man who transferred our bags to another cart managed by "his partner." both of us were a little alarmed, thinking that this was the last we'd see of our luggage, but it was not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all, it turned out, because we were met by a driver from the hotel and this guy trucked our stuff out to the taxi. Deb had told me to change some money for colones and then told me to tip him, so I tipped him 20,000 colones. Too much? Too little? By that time I didn't care.
We did get to our room by 11:30 PM. Deb stayed up for a while with a drippy nose. I layed down, shut my eyes and took a deep breath.
Then it was morning.