12/13/2016
Home to SRQ Airport using Lyft for the very first time. Definitely the way to go if no friends or family are available. About half the price of those non-existent cabs that supposedly roam the SRQ area. My driver, Vinny, was actually born in Brazil and was thrilled I was visiting the Brazilian side (however briefly) of Iguasso Falls during our journey.I love SRQ Airport for its short or non-existent check-in lines. I love that for some reason I always seem to score TSA Pre-check status for my domestic/international flights (without paying for the privilege). And, today, I loved the holiday concert music provided by Sarasota HS with the waterfall as a backdrop. And, so very grateful that I managed to avoid those northern airports caught in the polar vortex!In the middle of my quite interesting conversation with a gentleman from Columbus who was in Sarasota for some job training, my name was called to report to the gate desk. Of course I was worried and had bad flashbacks to high school when I was summoned to the office, but once again Christmas came early and my seat was upgraded to a comfort SKY seat! The only problem was that I didn't realize that meant free booze until we landed and I asked my seatmate about it. (We had a good laugh about that).
Extremely good fortune continued to follow me in the Atlanta airport when I treated myself to an absolutely delicious pappardelle w/braised pork, peppadew peppers & garlic at Ecco (Terminal F), accompanied by an equally tasty Malbec (getting in practice for the trip, she sighed - if I must).
Our plane was overbooked so the airline offered $500 to 3 volunteers willing to be bumped and rescheduled for departure tomorrow night. It took a while to get 3 recruits, but in the end they got what they needed and our flight arrived in Buenos Aires only 10 minutes late.
I had a delightful Brazilian seatmate, 18 years old and just finishing first semester at IUPI in Indiana. He was going back to his family in Brazil for the Christmas holiday. He offered me one of his complimentary wine cards and asked me which country's legal age the airline would consider when serving. So of course I aided in his corruption - explaining to him that beer and wine were free on international flights (so he should keep his coupon for domestic travel), and since legal age in Brazil was 18 vs. 21 in the USA, he should just go with the age that worked and register his request confidently - and with that we each enjoyed 2 glasses of Merlot (where the heck was the Malbec and Tempranillo anyway???)
The only unfortunate part about my otherwise uneventful travel was the fact that I was in the aisle seat directly across from the bank of toilets. The overriding chemical smells and the noise of the constant flushing were bad enough, but then some yahoo apparently vomited all over one of the toilets and quietly returned to his seat without telling anyone what happened. Well of course the next passenger who needed to use that toilet almost added to the puke when he opened the door - at least he informed the flight attendants (one of the poor women drew the short straw and had to clean up the mess) and warned off the female passenger waiting in line.
And of course my seatmate slept through it all and I managed to breathe through my mouth.
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