What an extremely long day this was...Sam pointed below to our destination...Estados Unidos. We began by waking up at 3:30AM to be packed and rolling on the bus by 4:00AM. On the bus, we made pretty good time, as the traffic was not near as bad as when we arrived on Sunday. And on this part of our adventure, we only needed one stop, which served as both a bathroom stop and a breakfast stop. I don't think I even mentioned that on Wednesday we had all went to a local clinic in Campamento for our COVID test...and they messed up all the paperwork, so we finally got our correct paperwork from Donny at the bus at 4:00AM. That is important as we needed that paperwork to be admitted back into the US.
After arriving at the airport, we got through the initial baggage drop off fairly quickly, then made our way through security and into the terminal. Wow, there is absolutely no organization within the terminal at San Pedro Sula. We basically all sat down and hoped that we would understand the word Miami when our gate was called. None of the screens were working, just the airport worker periodically calling out which plane was boarding. And the fun had already begun, in that Scott Vinsant had to put on a yellow vest and go down with airport security to inspect one of his bags. We were able to get a light lunch before our 3 hour flight to Miami, and were able to do a little shopping for souvenirs. As we were waiting, this is also where Sonja realized that they had taken Kylen's Covid test report at the American Airlines counter, and not given it back. But with the issues we had been having, I suggested she just chance it in the US rather than try to do anything in Honduras and miss a flight. And finally our flight was called and we were able to board. Davis found his Honduras emoji pictured below right before we got on the plane.
And on that flight, the first message from the pilot was "Hey, we are going to the US, you can take those masks off if you want", and poof, the masks were gone. Davis laughed because I fell asleep as we sat waiting to take off, and did not wake up till we were at cruising altitude. The American flight did not have TVs on the backs of the seats, so no movies. And before you know it, we were back in the USA. Ready for our 5 hour layover in Miami. And remember those COVID test reports that we had to scramble to get by 4:00AM this morning, and that Sonja had lost the one for Kylen...yeah, those papers were never even asked for. We made our way through customs, found all of our bags, and delivered them back for our remaining trip to Birmingham. Then got in a ridiculously long security line that weaved thru several back and forths, then actually went down a ramp to another level. But thankfully, we had time, so no rush. We later heard that our Texas friends flight was delayed from Honduras, and they had to stay in Miami for the night, so we were definately not complaining.
Once through security, our group divided into the Burger Group, the Sushi Group, and the Cuban Group for supper. Sam went with the Burger group, and me and Davis and Brandon Rawls hit the best cuban restaurant I have ever been to in the Miami airport. Ha, yes, only one, but it was amazing in 2019, and just as good again on this day. Brandon got some beef dish that he shared a bite with me and Davis....amazing. Me and Davis shared what looked like a chicken parmesian cuban version, and a cuban sandwich...both were great. Then we just sat back and enjoyed our time and being back in the states.
After supper, we just sat around wasting time, while our flight was delayed for 1 hour, then placed back on time (I don't know). Davis and I rode the tram around the whole airport. We were entertained by a quartet practicing in a restuarant near our gate. I showed everyone my post honduras crazy hair. And we all laughed at Scott Vinsant wrapped up in a blanket. I told him he looked just like my great grandfather, and asked if I could sit at his feet and play with my hot wheels. We also all cracked up when he tried on Davis' sweatshirt (only after we landed in Birmingham, did he let us know that he had a fever and not feeling well, but he just needed to make it home to Birmingham...haha). At this level of exhaustion, I remember a bad joke about "No poko your brother" cracking everyone up, in a weird reference to Sonja's family using the term "No toco". I really don't understand what was happening, but delirium was definitely setting in, we would be up about 21 hours when finally back at the house. And we finally boarded our plane in Miami, and landed in Birmingham 2 hours later. A wonderful trip, that we thought might not happen. But we had all made it...and all of our bags had made it as well....wait, nope...My old black suitcase was not there...in it were all of the leftover Honduras activity stuff, I think my new old man floppy hat is in there, many magic ninjas are in there, some bible drill bibles are in there...but honestly, if there was going to be a bag lost, that was the only one that could be replaced fairly quickly. And here I sit and write, with a bag still missing, AA has told me that they will respond to my lost baggage report within 15 days. So maybe I will update if they ever find the bag in a future blog. We had it in Miami. Maybe we can now just look for it in Scottsboro. Back home for sleep, the boys would leave for summer camp about 34 hours later.
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