Getting to Quito: The First Leg is Quick and Easy

Tuesday, 3 July

The anticipation of exploring new-to-us destinations more often than not overrides the inconveniences associated with air travel these days.  99% of the time everything goes smoothly, and we arrive at our destination raring to go.  Then there is that 1% of the time when one thing after another goes wrong, and we’re cursing air travel and wishing our motorhome could take us everywhere we want to go.

I will say this, though.  None of our problems was of Delta's doing.  The blame, in this case, lies first with Mother Nature; and second, with kısmet!

The first leg to Atlanta is a piece of cake; can’t say the same about the second leg to Quito!

We had a mid-day flight from Dulles International (IAD) to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL).  The cab we’d scheduled, picked us up at 9:30a.  An hour later, passports confirmed against the information I had entered during online check-in and two checked bags dropped off, we were through security and at our gate, eating our healthy snacks.

No, we don’t travel light!
The two suitcases are actually our camera bags; we carry those on.
our Camelbak hydration bags are doing double duty as daypacks/personal items on this trip.

The morning passenger rush over, dropping bags off at the Delta counter is quick and easy.

according to the board, Our 12:15p flight is on time; but the equipment has yet to arrive.

The Airbus A319 that was to whisk us to ATL arrived at the gate shortly before 11:30a.  Boarding was painless and we were wheels-up shortly after the scheduled departure time of 12:15p.

Our aisle-aisle seats in row 19 were nothing special, but we can’t complain since we had not been willing to pay extra for more legroom on this 1 hour and 15 minute flight.  Mui had an empty seat between him and the young lady in the window seat, so he could spread out a bit.  Considering she started talking to him non-stop before she was even in her seat, he later confided that he would have gladly exchanged the space to spread out for a  ‘buffer body’ in that middle seat ;-)

Once on the ground at ATL, we took the underground train to the international terminal.  Again, quick and easy.  Landing nearly 30 minutes ahead of schedule meant a longer wait for our next flight, but we had plenty to entertain us, including some three-dimensional wall art featuring figures of passengers traveling through the airport.  The extra time also came in handy for processing photos to post my RIP Lonesome George entry to the blog.

A stuffed hyena, a bear post, an elephant-foot stool, and ivory carvings are amongst
items confiscated from passengers returning to the US from overseas trips.

Plastic Bathing Beauty, 2004 No. 2 plastic detergent bottles create a wash of color! plastic disks from recycled detergent bottles were hand-sewn onto a vintage 1950s bathing suit and second-hand umbrella. required 150 hours to create.

Rusty Nail Cocktail Dress, 2001 salvaged nails deck out this dress to inspire recycling of building materials. The rust adds a little color to these nails that were hand-sewn or cut and glued to the dress, purse and vintage shoes. Required 125 hours to create.

It was during our wait at ATL that our travel day started going downhill.  At the risk of keeping you on tenterhooks — sneaky, I know — I’m going to leave that portion of our travel day for another post.