Too Poor for First Class, Too Old for Economy

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Well, we woke-up in Miami around 9am. Hungry. I didn’t feel good. I had a runny nose and a head cold. We walked across the street to McDonalds and I ordered an orange juice and a biscuit. We walked over to Publix and grabbed some fruit juice and Chex Mix. I took a long, hot shower. I crawled back in bed in my leggings, t-shirt, and socks. I was freezing but I felt hot to the touch. I was a snot machine. I slept a few hours. I’m not sure what order we did things today. We both took turns sleeping off and on. We had a 1-bedroom suite so we one of us could be in the living room with the TV and the other one could be sleeping in the bedroom which is what we did off and on today. I was miserable today. As soon as Kamie fell asleep, I turned off the A/C. I was freezing and dressed in layers and got the extra blanket out of the hall closet and covered-up in it. I drank liquids all day. I used the entire box of Kleenex in the hotel room and started using a new roll of toilet paper as Kleenex. At one point in the early evening we walked next door to Chipotle together and got some good food. I finally got everything repacked and laid out for our early morning flights home the next day.

Flying home was a process. We had to be out of the room by 6:45am to catch the airport shuttle bus. I took a shower and carefully put makeup on my chapped face and prayed I didn’t look or act sick. I was worried I might have COVID and I didn’t want to give it to anyone but I wanted to fly home soooo badly. No one in the airport ever looked at me twice. I had snot rags in each pocket of my jeans and in my purse. I had an iced tea in the airport and I was hyper for the first time in two weeks and I was a little delirious on the plane coming home. I really was. Kamie was playing the same Solitaire challenge I was so while he was getting his soda, I saw his challenge was a timed challenge so I started it by moving a card. He looked at me and whispered “You Asshole!” and immediately started pushing cards around trying to solve it in time. I laughed so hard water was pouring from my eyes. If anyone was watching me on that flight home, they thought I was drugged.

We walked off the plane in Springfield and waited for our luggage. And waited. And then we realized we were the only ones waiting and there was no other bags coming. I walked into the American Airlines office and he said he would try to find our bags. They finally said they had already found our bags and they had never left Miami and they were set to be flown to Dallas then on to Springfield. They would be in at 8pm. They said they would be delivered free to our house at 8am the next day…. Then 10am… then 11am… we finally got them around 4pm the next day.

We got home and I took another shower. I am showering constantly. A friend of mine told me to test for COVID. I had souvenirs for my parents so I did. Yep. I have COVID. This is the first time for me. Kamie was actually negative and it was his little butt that was sneezing on the balcony the day before we flew home so I don’t know how he is negative. Regardless, I am working from home but he is at work now (and yes, they know his wife has COVID and they don’t care). My worst day was in Miami and I lived through it. I am now just sporting a head cold more than anything. My nose hurt so bad yesterday someone told me to get some Vaseline and put on it and that did help. I am so thankful for vaccines and boosters. I feel like I’m going to be fine.

So, South America…. There are SO MANY moments and oddities with this vacation that I have continually forgot to write about. Every once in a while I think.. I should write that in my blog… and then hours later when I’m writing my blog, I forget to share the thing that might be interesting. This trip was a REAL adventure for us. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine we would be the only Americans onboard an 8-night cruise in South America. It was fine except for the excursion changes which actually worked out in our favor in the end. Would I cruise Costa again? Absolutely not. Their ships are 100% designed for non-English speakers. We can’t even download their app. Costa shouldn't even allow Americans to book their cruises. Did we get to see three South American countries and five cities safely? Absolutely. This trip started out rough and ended-up rough but there were eight fairly good days crammed in the middle. Overall, the trip was A LOT for us, especially the flights. We aren’t young anymore. Luckily, we both walk at least 1 to 3 miles or more every day of the week at home so we were fine physically for the trip even though there was a ton of walking involved some days. Mentally, I’m not sure I was prepared to be so out of my own element. I could never imagine a world without iced coffee or iced tea or without basic people to say Hello to or talk to in an elevator that understood me but I sure know that world now. That’s just hitting the surface. I will say… a smile goes a long way in every language.

I will make a few random comments and then this trip is a wrap…

Do you want to invest in two companies that are in every country in the world or so it seems? Coke and Nestle. I bet if you asked every team that just played in the World Baseball Classic, they all drink Coke and eat Nestle ice cream. I believe it may be actually one company so you should go invest in it because in every nook and cranny in the world, you can buy a Coke and have a cold Nestle ice cream cone.

On that same note, we were never hungry on this cruise. Was it the humidity or the mild a/c on the ship? We don’t know. We skipped lunch a lot. We skipped at least one meal every day, sometimes too. We didn’t eat until after 3pm one day and then I had to force myself to eat some fries. I felt fine, I just wasn’t hungry. I woke-up a few times in the morning with my stomach growling so I forced myself to go eat breakfast. I knew I needed to eat but I never felt hungry. It was the strangest feeling. Maybe it's because the food was always a bit questionable? I’m usually ready to eat again because I forgot I already ate.

About the seats we had on that Boeing 777-300ER. Normally, if you can get on an updated Boeing 700 or 777 that’s not a 300ER, and you can get the two seats together in the back of the planes after the rows of 3, one person gets an aisle and another person gets a window and they are great seats. The window is usually close enough for you to lean over onto it and sleep. These are the seats we had to China years ago on much longer flights and we loved those flights. Not this time. This was 9 hours of torture both ways. Never again. I won’t do it. We spent a lot of money and a lot of vacation time on this trip. If I’m going to invest that much of my life on something, I want it to be enjoyable and relaxing and something I want. I am no longer interested in being cultured. I’m a lost cause or else I’ve seen enough. I think I’ve seen A LOT. I could tell stories for years. I’m serious when I say I really just want a good road trip or shorter flights to some US-based destinations for a few years…or forever. We may give-up on seeing Australia and New Zealand and right now, we are both okay with that idea. We’ve already had a long discussion about the ten or fifteen places we want to see that are all a short flight away from us or two short flights away. It is also our new goal to visit every state in the United States. Kamie has eleven left and I believe I have six. As far as countries go, we think he has visited 30 and I have visited 24 now. We aren’t for sure but that’s a lot of countries and a lot of information. Our future radar includes places like Banff, Glacier Lake Montana, Alaska again (I loved Alaska), Hawaii, Jackson Hole Wyoming, Beaver Creek Colorado, Savannah Georgia, cruises up and down the Pacific coast, cruising on a Royal Caribbean massive ship out of Galveston, Rhode Island, maybe even Bermuda, the Panama Canal, and Costa Rica. We shall see. We have years until retirement and years left to discover places small and large that are shorter flying distances. Our “adventures” will be more classic vacations in the future. Give me a nice hotel, delicious food, a Starbucks or a good iced tea place, a good book, and some decent weather and I’m happy.

Our next trip is already booked, paid-for, and plane seats picked. I got an AMAZING deal on a trip for Kamie’s 50^th Birthday a few months back. He has asked off work. He has NO IDEA where we are going. I haven’t told anyone. I’m going to surprise him in the airport in October. It’s one week, and one of the flights is over 6 hours each way. Yesterday, I paid over $500 and upgraded our seats. We can’t do First Class (I didn’t even get offered a First Class upgrade so I suppose even that airline knows we are too poor for First Class) but we can do some sort of “Economy Plus” with 4” more of leg room and a seat at the front of the plane so we get off first. Maybe that will help. If we didn’t already have that entire trip booked and paid for, we would not be going.

Overall, we are happy we visited South America. We enjoyed this trip. We are (I am, at least) kinda proud of ourselves for getting along with everyone and “talking” to people who didn’t speak our language. We had a good time. We learned a lot. We had a real adventure. I say this was a successful trip. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading along and I hope you learned at least one or two interesting tid bits. Until next time…

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Photos

Me in Uruguay
Looks just like me! Bahahaha

Looking down from the bridge... this is what was in the lagoon!!
Terrible

2 weeks in South American and we come back and get...
...black beans, brown rice, chicken, salsa, sour cream,...bahahahahahaha

Miami Airport
Nicest thing in the entire craptacular airport

Starbucks in Miami Airport
wins the award for the slowest Starbucks I've ever seen and I've seen some slow ones. Took almost an hour for an unsweet iced tea that was clearly at least a day old. See that milk there? It was sitting on that table the entire time I waited for my tea. I did mobile order. I was in line and realized the line wasn't moving. After I mobile ordered, I got out of line. The girl in front of me in the line isn't even up to the register or even close to the register to order yet but she's still in line (that's some devotion). The line wasn't long. The service was SLOW - like, slower than you can even imagine. Worst. Airport. Ever.

Our baby missed us
He cried and cried when we got home

Comments

[Stacy]

I can't see any of these pics either.
Traveling with Covid would be absolute sheer misery! So much empathy!