Today started out with a ride to the airport by my Dad. We tried to take route 1 but there was a head
on collision in the center of Middleton on 114 and we had to turn around and
head to 93 by way of 125 instead. 114
was backed up almost as far as Sharpner’s Pond Road. With the detour we probably lost about 20
minutes and by the time we got to the route 28 exit it was fairly slow traffic
until the lower deck of 93. Still we made
it to the airport by 7:30 and we left at 6:30 so that wasn’t too bad.
My flight was supposed to depart for Newark at 10:00 but
apparently there was a crew problem for the plane in Chicago and it didn’t
leave until at least an hour after it was supposed to and we had an updated
time of 11:15 departure. That arrival would still give me around 2 hours for
the connection to my Lima flight in Newark so as long as it wasn’t too much
later than they said there really wasn’t a reason to panic. I saw one of my students from the class that
ended the day before just after security in the airport but he was flying Delta
and I was on United. I bought a muffin
and some coffee at the Dunkin Donuts in the terminal (terminal A for the United
Newark flights) then sat at the gate and listened to the flight crew tell
stories about their previous passengers because they sat next to me while we
were waiting for the flight to arrive.
The flight was about 1 hour and 20 minutes late to depart
after all was said and done. United
apparently has started sorting their boarding into boarding group gate lines.
Of course since I lost my status by not flying United in a while I was stuck at
the last group. I had to put my backpack in an overhead several rows away from
me but with the 737-800 aisle seats there isn’t enough room to put it
underneath the seat in front of you. The flight itself was less than an hour
and uneventful if a bit bumpy on the way down.
They had in seat entertainment but even on such a short flight they
wanted you to pay $5.99 which is not likely to happen. I nodded off for a bit and then when they
announced the bumpy air coming into the landing I just waited it out. As I said
it wasn’t really too bad. Fortunately
the gates weren’t too far apart though the gate changed from the one printed on
the ticket. I was able to get to the gate area in Newark fairly quickly and
there was still around half an hour till boarding time according to the ticket.
I chose not to have lunch even though it was basically that time and ate one of
the snacks I bought in Boston. From
there it was a short wait until the boarding for the approximately 8 hour
flight to Lima.
The flight to Lima itself was mostly uneventful but the
boarding was probably one of the worst plane boarding experiences I have ever
encountered. They started boarding 3 times. The first two they stopped because
apparently catering was still being filled on the plane. There was a couple with kids who got in an
argument with the lady taking the tickets for boarding which delayed things a
couple of times. Finally we all were able to get on board but we departed at
least half an hour late. I watched the
movies Parker, Wreckit Ralph and Chinese Zodiac 12. Parker was a Jason Statham action flick. It
was ok. Jennifer Lopez was a
costar. Wreckit Ralph was an animated
movie by Disney that was based on a fake video game. It was cute and I enjoyed it. Chinese Zodiac 12 was a very recent Jackie
Chan movie. It was funny and made in Hong
Kong or China so he could actually do all his own stunts. I ate the meal because I didn’t get a chance
for anything real in Newark. It was beef with mashed potatoes. We landed basically on time. The immigration
line was a pain in the butt especially because they opened a new line after I
already passed a chance to get into it. All the same it wasn’t that bad. I was just
behind the person who got the red light for customs inspection then it was just
finding Daniela in the airport. I had to wait a short time as she had her
brother drive and that took a little bit more time than normal. They picked me up and we went to her house
where we dropped off the stuff then Daniela and I went out for pizza at a
restaurant not too far from her house.
The dough for the pizza was more like regular bread which was odd but it
wasn’t bad. We shared a bottle of wine from Peru as well. Then we went back to her house and relaxed
until it was time to get to the airport for our flight.
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