By the time my first flight, from Kansas City to Houston, took off, I wished there
would have been a way to filter out every mention of Corona Virus from my
social media feeds. In between the
common-sense posts from virologists reminding us that hand-washing was the most
important preventative factor, there were stories of people stealing boxes of
anti-bacterial wipes and surgical masks from hospitals (many so they could
resell on-line to the paranoid at extortionate prices), people hoarding food,
people avoiding church, people worrying about booking trips 6 months from
now. I never considered cancelling the
trip- but I worried a lot, mostly about being quarantined if I coughed or maybe
having a hard time getting home if the
airlines cut back on flights. I turned out to be right about the latter concern.
My first hurdle:
working out the issue that kept me from checking in on-line the day
before. My passport scanned successfully
but the system wouldn’t check me in. As
I suspected, United’s computer system kicked me out because they needed to see
a Bolivian visa- except that it wasn’t needed anymore. The interim President had declared last
December that US citizens no longer required one for stays shorter than 90
days. Fortunately someone who seemed
very familiar with the situation verified that and noted that I’d need an
itinerary to prove that I was traveling onward on less than 90 days. I had that.
Big sigh of relief. They didn’t
even ask to see my Yellow Fever Vaccination Waiver certificate. (I wasn’t going to areas where it was a big
risk, there’s a worldwide shortage of it and people over 60 run the risk of
severe side effects.)
The airport was unusually quiet for 9 AM on a weekday and
boarding was exceptionally fast- the flight was only half full. We took off on time. Another big sigh of relief- I wanted to spend
as much time as possible enjoying the Polaris Lounge in Houston.
Kansas City (MCI), unusually quiet. |
Houston, Polaris Lounge |
After a nice lunch and a couple of glasses of wine I headed
to the gate for my flight to Lima. The
seating area didn’t seem to be as large as the one on my AA flights between DFW
and Honolulu last year but they sure were an improvement over Coach. I also found that although I had a Window
seat, I had only about 1/4 of a window visible.
Weird. I watched a documentary
about David Crosby and “Dr. Strangelove” from the movie selection.
In-flight map. Are we there yet? |