"D" is for Departure.

I didn't know how much walking I'd get in the next couple of days, what with all the plane travel, so I decided to have dinner at the hotel and then walk over to the airport and "do laps" I'm not used to not walking every day. Anyhow, I had a fantastic spinach salad, filled with cranberries and walnuts and a creamy soft chèvre, some other nuts and seeds and strawberries all topped with a gingery vinaigrette. It was SO tasty. And a diet 7-up, which is odd for me because I just don't drink pop.

Then I went outside and since it was so beautiful I figured I'd walk around the airport. Yeah, good luck, there are dead ends everywhere and you can't go anywhere other than up and down in front of the drop off spots which were so busy that I couldn't go three feet without having to dodge carts laden with towers of luggage being manned by hasty, hurried people.

I decided that inside was a better bet, so in I went and started striding. I found a route and did about 4 laps, but when I started recognizing people as I whooshed by them, I had second thoughts, imaging phone calls to the airport police complaining about a middle aged woman running through the airport with spinach in her teeth.

So I just went back to my room and watched a rerun of Two and Half Men.

Woke up at 5:39, wide awake with excitement and trepidation. Got ready and headed over to the airport and the first people I saw were Margy and Carla, the organizers of the tour, as well as a few others that were going.

We all headed off to the US check in. Yeah, I know about the US paranoia and yeah, I'd rather be searched than get on a plane with someone who has dynamite in their pants (I mean that literally, not figuratively or obscenely) but sheesh...what a gong show.

Check in, get your boarding pass, walk 10 feet, show your boarding pass and passport, walk a few more feet to immigration, show your boarding pass and passport, go thru metal detector, show your passport, get your bag open and show your liquids...am I gonna get in trouble for bringing a 4 ounce container into a three ounce world? Shoes off, watch off, belt off, hurry, hurry, hurry, people are starting to pile up behind you, go thru metal detector again, hold breath as the X-ray lady backs up your case for another look......fak, am I going to airport jail for the toothpaste I stashed in my carry on? After a final squint she decides that whatever it is isn't a threat to US security. Stumble out of the way, shoelaces flapping, belt dangling, jacket grasped in one hand, trying to be quick and prompt. I need a coffee. The others, who are all equally disheveled eye up a Starbucks, but thank goodness a Tim Hortons was closer. You know the whole Starbucks thing and me.

Have coffee and go to our gate to board. Show passport and boarding pass, walk down the jetway thing, I don't know what it called, and show your boarding pass one final time. *whew*. I have a real love/hate relationship with airports.

Four hours to Houston where we had a two hour layover. Went for a quick lunch, a Stromboli, better than your average airport food, which is a plus for Houston, but the bathrooms were revolting, a double-minus for Houston.

While sitting at our gate, I noticed my seat number was GTE. "Odd" I thought, "Do they have some new code for seating, maybe a terrorist protection thing?" I went to ask the woman at the Gate and she said "oh, it means Gate, to come and see us." I got momentarily excited, thinking that maybe I was getting an upgrade? Imagine my dismay and annoyance when she told me it meant they didn't have a seat for me. Triple negative for Houston, even though it was a United error.

But, to make a long story short, she found me a seat on the (overbooked) flight, and it was an exit so I had more than enough legroom. Who ever says that on a plane? I could stick my feet straight out and still not touch the seat in front of me. And I did, just because I could.

Other than the seat glitch, United impressed me. Free headphones, and they were nice padded ones, the exit seat reclined (often they don't) the movie selection was good, I watched "Guilt Trip" (Seth Rogan and Barbra Striesand), and I guffawed a few times because I could SO see me in Barbra's character, then watched about 20 minutes of "Jack Reacher" (come on Tom Cruise, what's with THAT? Did you just need some extra cash to pay Katie's bills or to rent out another Disney castle for Suri? Talk about a useless, senseless movie) and also "The Hobbit- an unexpected journey" which was an unexpected pleasure.

Oh, another minus was the dinner. I know, I know, it's airplane food, but this was some whole new genre of terrible. Beef cannelloni in some sort of oily sauce. I think mine might have been the display model and thus it was plastic. I managed to hack off a small chunk, but I couldn't even swallow it. Luckily there was a bag of veggies and fresh brown bun to sustain me.

There was a beautiful sunset that also sustained me.

The flight was 6.5 hours and 3160 miles. Landed in Peru at 10:05.