As I’m preparing to embark on a new road trip to the Midwest, I’m reflecting on other past trips. This post has been sitting as a draft for a few months now. It’s about time it finally got polished up and published.
I kept a short journal of the first few days of my vacation in Mexico near the small fishing village of Teacapan. This is how it starts…
It was a 4AM wake up call and I had a 6AM flight from SFO to Phoenix. It’s been raining. At the airport, the self serve kiosks weren’t working. Still trying to print my boarding pass at 5:10AM, I wonder if I’m really going to make it. The system is fixed, I’ve cleared security and finally made it to the gate by 5:30AM. All of this hurrying has led up to the next period of waiting.
An alarm bell starts ringing for a few minutes and a fellow passenger wonders if they found Jack Bauer in the luggage compartment. At last I’m stuck in a window seat just behind the wing. Despite the rain’s best efforts, the plane leaves the ground on time. From a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet there’s a beautiful sunrise. The scenery below consists of lots of mountainous terrain blanketed in snow until the last stretch to Phoenix. It’s only an hour and twenty minutes in the air and then we’re back on the ground.
There’s no terminal switch and just a quick walk to the next departing gate. It’s time for breakfast. I have my choice between a Pizza Hut and an adjoining deli. I choke down part of a ham/egg/cheese croissant from an airport deli and wait out the half hour layover. I’m surrounded by passengers subsisting on pizza & burgers at 9AM. There are lots of army folk in their digital cammo. A flight to Newark seems to be delayed until spring on account of winter weather.
My flight to Mazatlan is delayed from boarding due to customs clearance from the prior inbound flight and maintenance crews on board plane. None of the news sounds promising. Boarding is prematurely begun and then quickly halted for another 20 minutes so maintenance can finish their work. Everyone is finally boarded. Aisle seat. First time ever.
The next week during the Christmas of 2008 was spent enjoying the beach and surrounding towns of Mexico – from both the ground and the air.
