Off to Costa Rica (Or Not)

Off to Costa Rica (Or Not)

Thursday-Not Off to Costa Rica

Well, after a leisurely morning, my friend Lenny picked us up and off to the airport we went. Boarding passes in place; we used curbside bag check and went for a quick lunch before heading to our gate.

Upon arrival at our gate, the podium announced that we had to get another passport check before boarding. Stand in line some more for this formality. Oops, Mary Lou can’t go because her passport expires February 15^th. We tell the gal at the podium that we’ll be back on the 4^th-well before the passport expires. The gal explains that Costa Rica has this not well publicized requirement that all visitors must have a passport that will remain valid for at least 90 days after the visit. So, no Costa Rica today! They rebook us for tomorrow and explain that we can go to Tucson and get an expedited passport replacement but it is by appointment only.

Mary Lou quickly calls and after going through about a million automated menus finally gets an appointment for 9 the next morning. Our bags are pulled off the flight and we take a taxi home.

Friday-Off to Costa Rica-Maybe

For those of you who are geographically challenged let me proffer that Tucson is about 120 miles from Phoenix. We left for Tucson at 6:30 Friday morning and found the Passport office at 8:40. Fortunately, they took Mary Lou right in and since she had filled out all her paperwork in advance, they told her that the passport would take 45 minutes to an hour to complete. We wait and wait, all the time getting more and more antsy. Finally at 10:15AM, the passport was delivered into Mary Lou’s hands and off we raced, back to the Phoenix airport. We abandoned the car in long term parking and raced (slowly by bus) to the terminal, then cut in front of some nice people to get to the front of the baggage check line to recheck the bags, raced to the security checkpoint, sneaked through the first class line, and raced to the gate just in time for boarding our 1:14 PM flight.

Note: Everyone knows that I love racing but this is JUST NOT what I have in mind when I think about racing.

Well, we’re finally off to Costa Rica! What else can happen? Stay tuned. You haven’t heard anything yet. A long day turns into a longer night!

Later,

The Geezer