The 3 Month Panama Building Adventure Begins

It's going to be little sleep for awhile. Didn't sleep well last night because of coughing jags.

Carole took me to the airport Tue. Sept 15th at 5 am. Flight to Atlanta and to Ft. Lauderdale were uneventful. Then checking in at Spirit Air, the lady said I could not enter Panama without a return trip booked. Some rule I didn't know about, and the airline saw no reason to tell me when I booked the flight a month earlier. So then it was a panic scramble to book a flight within 15 minutes so I could make my plane. I had to do it through her terminal, and she acted like it was her second day on the job. I wanted to get a refundable flight so I could tweek it later (I was originally planning to return from Costa Rica), but I think she screwed that up. So after barely making my flight, I tried to talk to someone at the Spirit Air office in Pa City, but all the English speakers were gone.

So on to the lawyer's office. I was so late (cabbie screwed up) I caught him leaving on the elevator, But he got his money, so he was happy.

Then, a cab to the Albrook Bus Terminal, and a 5 hour wait for the 10:40 pm express bus to David. The terminal and adjoining megamall were packed. Caught myself dozing at the internet cafe in the mall. The bus system is amazing and the mall showed no signs of a recession. Stressed and dying mall owners and stores in the USA would drool over the business here. Hey, Obama!! It's still not too late to print up some more money and install a decent mass transit system. Oh yeah, those auto-worker pensions need protection.....I forgot. "Cash for Clunkers" and other gov. sponsored boondoggles. (Uh oh .... he's going off on another political tangent, again}

{{{{{Not to get off the subject, but let's do the math on the wildy successful CFClunkers:
A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons

The Express Bus

saved per year.
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of U.S. consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel cost about $350 million dollars.
So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
The government (YOU AND I) spent $8.57 for every dollar saved. WHOO HOOO!!

Not only that, it created more new debt burden for struggling proles, pulled forward demand for new autos (now watch sales fall off a cliff), and destroyed perfectly good and paid-for vehicles.}}}}}

OK, back to the story: A flight and hotel in David would cost about $120 and the bus is only $15, so hey, sleep on the bus and save some moolah. Sleep amounted to about 15 cat naps because of interuptions for random ID checks, conductor's occasional yelling announcements, etc. Plus, the ride is like trying sleep on a wooden rollar coaster. The air conditioning in the bus was cranked. I'm fairly hardy about tempurature, but I put on my sweatshirt, extra socks, and used a towel for a blanket. The lady next to me had a winter coat on, and we were practically snuggling for warmth when we woke up. HA!

Hit David at 5 in the am.

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