And so it begins.. the journey that didn't want to end...

It is 4:30 PM

Alecia and I arrived in Curitiba at about 12:20pm on Sunday afternoon. At least 24 hours after our original arrival date.

We should have known things would get crazy when we ended up checking in early and had to rush to say good bye to everyone... and then of course the plane in Calgary had problems with air conditioning and then couldn't detach from the dock. They had to push our plane from the dock manually.

So take off and the plane trip from Calgary was fairly average.. we were late taking off and the flight felt like the full 4 hours, the plane offered drinks and food for purchase and the bathroom was ok.. bigger than I expected. The male flight attendant was really nice.

So we arrived in New York and although we were on the wrong side of the plane to see the city, we saw the ocean and some boats and the most beautiful sunset over the water.

We landed in JFK and we expected to have an oversize wheelchair for me since that is what I will require post-surgery and was advised it would be best for on the way there too... well the wheel chair attendant wasn't all that nice, he smelled and he only took us about 1/4 of the way (to the sky train thing) and then said buh bye and left us there. I was pretty ticked off. Then we had to go check in at American Airlines and go through customs/security. We thought we had very little time to get things from Duty free before taking off so we rushed through it until we discovered our flight out would be late. By now I was hurting but ok.. my carry-on stuff was far too heavy.

So while we were waiting, Alecia and I had some soft pretzels and pretzel dog and I ate a filet of fish.. I was STARVING!!! (they were really the only places open)

So our flight finally left New York at around midnight (2 1/2 hours late). The seats I had were ok but not as roomy as I hoped. Luckily with 2 seats it was more comfortable. They tried to give my seat away but I just had to say that I paid for it.

So about 1 1/2 hours into the flight to Sao Paulo, the flight was turned around to take us back to New York. There was a radar outage in Brazil... We landed back at JFK at about 3:40am. They took forever to get us off the plane. It was so uncomfortable!

So when we landed in New York, we had to go into the airport through customs and fill out declaration forms, we waited in a long line and then got our passports stamped "Homeland Security approved", we were finger printed and we had our photo taken.

After that, we had to go from Terminal 4 back to terminal 9 using the sky train. (No wheelchair at all this time). Anyone that is carrying as much extra weight as I am knows how hard all that walkin was...

So when we got to terminal 9, we had to go through security again and take off shoes/coats etc.. I kept setting off the alarm because my arms touched either side of the sensor.

So we went back through duty free, and by the time we made it to the gate we were departing from, American Airlines was handing out meal vouchers. It was already 6:30am and the plane was now scheduled for 9:30 or so in the morning.. I also asked them for a confirmation on our connecting flight to Curitiba and they couldn't/wouldn't do it.

So we took our vouchers to McDOnalds. (the only place other than pretzel dog in that part of the airport)

So after eating, I bought an internet connection and managed to get online and alert people to tell Dr.M I would be late. He got my email too but hey more is better than not enough.

So we finally departed JFK and we were so tired that we (and all the other passengers) fell asleep almost the miniute they sat down. It was insane.

I slept most of the trip. Ate, watched a movie (Disturbia) and pondered the connecting flight. The flight was long, my legs hated it and I was so ready for a hot shower.

We got off the plane and the airport was humid and the city of Sao Paulo was HUGE!!! After a bit of confusion, we found out we had to go to the American Airlines office. (so lucky we didn't have to stand with the 1100 people in line)

American Airlines gave us vouchers for hotel, taxi and new airline tickets. We went to the hotel by taxi which was a good long trip through the city. We had the opportunity for a hot shower and a meal and a bed to sleep in. I wasn't much about sleeping though.. I was wrapped up in the trip...

Unfortunately the tickets American Airlines arranged for us could not be honored by the airline (Varig Brasil) and so I had to re-buy the flight from Sao Paulo to Curitiba.

The Cognohas airport was interesting and a lot nicer than the other one. Security was light and aside from a quick trip through a metal detector, it was so nice to not be hassled.

Although our gate was changed and flight was delayed by about 30 mins we safely flew to Curitiba and it was bizarre being on a plane and not understanding the safety instructions.. it was cool though because they served a hot snack and it was only a 55 min flight.. I tell ya I needed something warm!

Gilberto and his father-in-law came to pick us up. We went straight to the hotel and I was able to speak to Dr. M while I was waiting for the luggage to be loaded into the van.

It is hella cold here!!!!!

Anyways... that was the trip here.. I am not 100% caught up but I will work on that later..