Back in the US, Back In US – Panama Day 8.5

Don't Be Fooled

Wear Your Walking Shoes!

Yesterday was a real marathon in our return to the US.  We started out at 4am from the hotel to catch our 7am flight out of Panama City.  My wife’s uncle picked us up and delivered us to Tocumen Airport by 5am – should have been plenty of time to get in, have breakfast, then make the gate.  We spent about 40 minutes waiting to check bags because they do not have the internet kiosks that have become so common in US airports.  Very nostalgic to wait in line again, but this is one thing technology does so much better and efficiently.  For the first time American Airlines seems to have figured out that if you’re going to make people wait in line to check in that it’s probably a good idea to have enough people behind the counter to handle the number of passengers.  In the past I’ve waiting nearly two hours to get through this line – I think they changed managers because it went much more smoothly.  The American Airlines guy at our counter was very cool and actually got us on exit row seats for both flights – score!  We then had to go through the security check in which turned out to be something of an adventure.  They had one guy checking all passports but there was a family standing with him with all their baggage and the woman was pleading with him to let her board the airplane with her baby – even though she didn’t have the proper documents.  To this guy’s credit he remained completely professional with her despite some real drama from her.  He eventually called another guy up to take over for him so he could deal with her.  We sped up to the baggage screening area and ground to a halt.  They only had two belts operating, manned by about thirty people – so that didn’t make sense.  What infuriated the entire line of people waiting were the air crews.  They waltzed around the line and were allowed to go through the process ahead of us.  Just as the last crew member was checked through and they would start taking an actual passenger another air crew would show up.  This went on for about thirty minutes until the leader of the screening area notified the rising unrest in the passenger area and opened another line.  He even held up an air crew so more passengers could get through.  The air crew – I think they were from Delta – acted like teenage girls and rolled their eyes and generally threw a tantrum.  This doesn’t work with Panamanians and the passengers cheered when the guy told them they would have to wait even longer after their emotional display.  We finally made it through with five minutes to spare before the boarding for our first flight – no breakfast in Panama.  The Panamanians have an additional check at the gate area where all carry on bags are opened and searched.  This actually seemed to help the boarding process because even though we were in the last group to board once we passed through and walked on to the jet way we walked right into the plane and our seats, not having the usual 10-15 minute wait while the line ahead of you inches forward.  We were changing planes in Miami, an airport I have always loathed because of the way it was set up.  Before you always had to walk to the center and then back out the radial arms of gates to change planes.  I noticed that some serious renovation and modernization had taken place since my last trip through and hoped they had fixed this issue. It was clear that they tried – even having robotic trains to ferry people around.  I think they missed the part about not having to walk long distances though.  We got off the plane and walked as directed by signs towards immigration, and we walked, and we walked, took one of the trains, and then we walked, and walked some more.  I hear that they do a lot of drugs in Miami and whoever designed the airport was certainly partaking.  Even after we went through immigration we were only half finished with our walking and train rides, I think we ended up going almost full circle from where we started.  Immigration took a lot longer than usual – it was obvious that the days of just breezing through – even if you’re a bona fide US citizen are gone.  Another thing to thank our Arab brothers for, they’ve made air travel so special.   We grabbed a really good piece of pizza and then waited for our connecting flight to Boston.  We were delayed for about an hour and a half because they had no one to fly the plane – somewhat of a requirement.  We had just gotten into Miami ahead of some thunderstorms so the scheduled flight crew was diverted to another airport by the same storms.  They eventually made it and we were headed for Boston with a one of those pilots who likes to narrate the flight – telling us exactly where we are about every twenty minutes – I’ve always kind of liked that.  We arrived in Boston to 38 degree rainy weather (very un-Panama like).  Economy parking turned out to work really well – no long walks at all (Are you listening Miami?!)  We decided to head down to Rhode Island to recover Buddy the Wonder Pooch, grabbing our first real meal of the day around 9:30pm.  Buddy was appropriately frantic when we arrived and it was cool to see how much he had obviously missed my wife – join the club pal.  We finally pulled into the house around 11pm – totally exhausted but with a real feeling of coming home.  Getting up and coming into work this morning was a little more challenging.  I hope to post a collection of photos from the trip over the weekend – it’s good to be home.