Our departure from PR was an interesting affair. We all awoke in good time, loaded the church van, and headed to the church. There we said our good-byes to the school staff and picked up our driver and his companion. We left the church about 9:00 AM. As we neared the half-way point and began to ascend the mountains, the van began to sputter, coughed, and then died! Efraín pulled to the side of the road and tried repeatedly to start the engine with no success.
At that point we began to think about alternate plans. Since it was only 10:00 and our flight did not leave until 2:40 PM, we still had some flexibility. Bill called Jeremy Markle, another missionary, and told him of our predicament. He and his wife dropped their plans for the day and headed our way. It was nearly 11:00 AM when they arrived in their mini-van and Ford Bronco. We piled the suitcases into both vehicles and climbed aboard for the second leg of our trip.
As we neared the airport, we got split up. We traded cell calls and made sure the ladies knew how to proceed. Though this could have posed new difficulties, both vehicles arrived at the airport at virtually the same time! We unloaded the suitcases and our family and said our thank you’s and good-byes. Then we began carting the luggage to the agricultural check point which was at the other end of the terminal (where else?).
Bill pulled several suitcases while children tugged still more. A second trip was made to complete the entourage, and we regrouped to head toward the check-in area. However, when a count of the suitcases was made, bill noticed that 2 bags were missing. A quick phone call confirmed our fears, the luggage was sitting on the back seat of the Bronco! Jeremy turned around immediately, but this presented us with another 20 minute delay.
We wheeled our caravan of 9 suitcases and 6 carry-on bags to the check-in counter. Teresa stood in the line, while Nathan and Bill waited for the wayward luggage at curbside. The two orphans arrived at about 12:30 PM, and following the agriculture check, were joined with the others. Teresa and the rest of the clan had not moved from the spot where they joined the line of passengers! Soon we were informed that we had selected the wrong line! Well, it was the right line, just the wrong time to be in it. Two or three youth basketball teams were represented by the several adults who stood huddled around the kiosk. It looked like a good line to be in, but there were actually more than 50 people in front of us!
Well, we finally got to the kiosk. Bill entered the numbers from our print out, and . . . Yes, you guessed it, the computer did not recognize the reservation information! We entered every number on the sheet just in case, but nothing worked. An airline employee volunteered to intercede, but he was also helping several others and trying to direct other workers to solve other issues. He finally took the paperwork to another terminal and in no time at all, he was printing our luggage tags. Praise the Lord, he found our reservation with no difficulty, although the numbers had been changed (presumably to protect the innocent or guilty, or someone somewhere).
As we finished checking our luggage in (everything made it under the weight limit of 50 lbs. though several weighed 48, 49 and 50), the agent told us to take the longer route to our gate since the shorter route was backed up due to the security check. He also mentioned that we should go directly to the gate since it was now 1:30 PM. We had planned to eat something before boarding the plane, so we decided to grab a few burgers and eat at the gate.
At McDonald’s our order was yet another adventure. First our request for 6 McDuos (double cheeseburgers) was mistaken for 6 McNuggets!? We nearly left the restaurant before we discovered the error, then Bill went back to the counter to correct the problem. They agreed to correct the problem and suggested that they charge us for just 5 burgers. However, Bill pointed out that McNuggets cost more than double the price of a burger, so they agreed to charge just 4 burgers. We grabbed the bag a walked briskly to the security check point. The line was not moving, so we handed out the burgers only to find out that they had only included 5! Dad got half a burger from a kind little girl (Bethany).
Security was a breeze. No one of us was singled out as a suspicious character (as the children have been in the past). It was after 2:00 when we left security and headed to the gate. When we arrived, we double-checked the tickets and found that the gate had been changed! Fortunately, the new gate was just across the room. We sat down, and in about 10 minutes, we were called to board the flight. From that point everything went well. We left on time, had only a small bit of turbulence, and arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule!
We found a skycap, located the rental company, checked out a van, and headed to our hotel. Praise the Lord that all the delays did not upset us, nor interfere with the schedule of the day. Indeed, we rejoiced to see the Lord’s wisdom in meeting every need even before it presented itself.
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