So, we’ve had a fairly uneventful journey up until now. Well, that’s not entirely true.
On Monday, there was a little dust up when Nathan’s boss discovered that we would be gone all next week. Apparently, whatever the normal procedure for getting vacation time onto his calendar hadn’t been followed. Whoops! I told Nathan I’d have a great time without him…
The week went by fine. Work, pilates, half day Friday, and scramble Friday afternoon to get all of the necessary packing and chores done. Hair cut, laundry, dishes and leaf drop off. We got it all done and managed to squeeze in dinner at the Pub.
On Friday morning, we reached out to our ride to the airport just to confirm. Nothing. Then by 4 pm, we texted. Still nothing. I cued up a friend just in case, but then we heard from her. Dodged a bullet, or rather, we were just being nervous nellies. But when you book a ride in May and expect service in November, with no contact in between, Type A’s get a little uneasy.
Turns out, our shuttle driver got stuck in traffic, so she sent her daughter to drive us. She arrived on time and traffic to DIA was easy. The Copa bag drop was painless, as was the TSA Precheck line.
We boarded our flight to Panama City without an issue, (well except that it was past our Friday bedtime…) and I promptly put myself to bed. I briefly woke up to decline dinner, but Nathan woke up to accept a drink…which slipped off his tray table and spilled on his arm and startled him awake.
I was pretty restless, but still slept. I was awakened when they announced a need for a doctor or a nurse on board. No idea what the issue was but it didn’t cause any additional commotion.
In Panama City we sleepily walked around and found breakfast. I think Copa offered a hot ham or turkey sandwich on our flight but we both slept through it. We strolled the airport to kill time and were able to board our flight to Barbados without issue.
The flight to Barbados was uneventful, we landed early, and walked across the tarmac to the arrivals and immigration building. Before we entered, we were offered a juice beverage of some kind. Clearly sleep deprived, I call it fizzy or effervescent and Nathan said it was ‘just rum’. He means juice and rum, but whatever.
There were a few dudes holding signs welcoming certain passengers that we passed, and now I’m awake enough to realize we might need to check in with them. Their sign says Grenadine Connections, and that’s not our onward airline, but Pillatzke is one of the names on their board, so we turn around to present ourselves.
That’s when we get the good news. There are seven of us traveling on this flight to Bequia (pronounced Beck-way), and due to breakdowns and the like, they don’t have a plane for us. But don’t worry. We’ll get you there, he says.
Normalment. That’s what we say. There’s always something and since we are more than two hours early for our 4:30 pm departure, no reason to get upset. I’ve come a long way! I actually expected something like this at this stage of the trip. Rommel asks us to stay put so he can find us, and within 30 minutes or so, they have a plane for us. Still departing at 4:30, so no harm, no foul.
