All good things come to those who......

 

It has seemed a while since my feet touched an airport floor and whilst I usually enjoy the process of checking in, people watching, gate waiting, shop meandering.. I confess that all the stories of huge queues and travel trouble had left me feeling a little concerned.

So I pitched up even earlier than my usual 'in good time and a bit' not realising that I wasnt allowed to check in until 3 hours before my flight which left me with a good hour and a bit wait. So I sat inside departures watching the queues.

To my dismay, the queue for security was out the terminal building but on further perusal noted that it was actually moving at a decent pace. The queue for check in wasn't quite so daunting and also seemed to be moving reasonably rapidly.

I watched as people tried to head for the lifts in a bid to jump the queue, headed off at the pass by a smiling volunteer, no doubt wise to such tricks.

Eventually it was time for me to check in and I wondered over to the counter... after a short queuing episode....

Where are you going they asked?

Costa Rica I replied...

What's that taped to the outside of your bag? 

Snake hook! 

It has to go inside.... 

ok. After a wrestling match, the snake hook sat almost inside my bag, the hook being. longer than the bag caused it to lift the top of the bag right up. But it seemed secure and I was reasonably. confident nothing was going to tip out of my bag as a result. 

Next up... 

There seems to be a problem, we cant check you in for your second flight!

Ahh ok... it seems that my flight to San Jose had been rescheduled by 10 minutes and my e ticket hadn't been updated... ok... no problem they said and after a short conversation with a colleague, I was reissued a boarding pass.

So far so good... all issues dealt with. They informed me that I would have to pick up my bag in seattle and re drop it for my next flight... standard practice when jumpin around the states.

I settled into the business of queuing for security.. fortunately the queue was no longer outside the terminal and was moving very quickly... I also got into conversation with a nice lady from Oz which passed the time nicely.

Security was the usual... everything off and in a tray... no not your underwear, that can stay on.  How people can fail so miserably in security it beggars belief. Not only do you have people shouting at you from all directions to remove liquids, put them in plastuc bags, take off belts, shoes etc but there are signs everywhere. Also surely people realise that their watch will set off the metal detector, that the coins in their pocket count as... you've guessed it... stuff in the pockets that should be removed!

So when the person in front of me (it's always the person in front of ME) asks whether he needs to take off his shoes, his belt and empty his pockets and then. sets off the metal detector because of the coins in his pockets... well... it just surprises me that humans are considered the most sentient of beings! 😂

So eventually through security and I sit down waiting for my gate to show up on the board, browsing through my flight details for the hundredth time.. when an epiphany occured.... and it wasn't a good one.

Just remember before you shout pot and kettle when you remember my aforementioned comment about sentient beings... that I had mentioned copiously to check in staff that I was going to Costa Rica... and no one had said a thing.....

I don't remember quite what triggered the epiphany but I think it was a combo of things... my parents remarking how. wierd it was that I was going to Seattle before San José, the capital of Costa Rica... the browsing of the flight times, complicated in part by time zone differences... the fact that SJO is very similar to SJC and when you say San José to airport staff... they can also hear San Jose...

BANG... the epiphany... but surely not... surely either myself and/or the unnamed travel agent that I booked through could have been sooo dumb...

I went slightly cold....

tthen sweated a little...

then giggled, a wry smile forming...

I was going to San Jose.... in California!!!

Somehow I have been sent to the wrong San Jose. I know I was extremely careful when booking not to muddle them up... but maybe a slip of the mouse when clicking on San Jose or perhaps a slip in. concentration by the travel agent had resulted in me going via Seattle to California and no further.

By this time, I was sitting at the gate.

Thank. god for internet as it meant that I could sit there and google flights from san Jose to San José. 😂 I found one that gave me an hour to collect my bag and recheck in but after. chatting to the pilot of our plane to Seattle, he convinced me that it was too tight a turnaround and a flight the next morning. would be better. I quickly Kayakked it and found  Alaska airlines flights from san Jose to L. A to San José. Another 2 flights, a few hundred quid and a day late to Costa Rica... but it could have been worse.

It just delayed my plans by a day and as I had a decent amount of time there.. 1 day wasn't the end of the world. It also meant I touched down and spent at least an hour in Washington state, which means it counts amongst the states I have now been to😂

I boarded the flight to Seattle having changed my hotel in San José to the following night, informed the hotel in Puerto Jiminez that I would be a day late to the party and contemplating a hotel in San Jose california...  crisis dealt with! 

The flight to Seattle was the usual long haul monotony broken by some reasonable food, finally watching the last 2 james bond movies and the first John wick film, reading. my book and staring out of the window at Greenland, Alaska, Canada (pretty much over where I cycled) and possibly Mt Rainier (not sure about that last bit. 

Then a quick turnaround... picking up my luggage (snake hook still in situ) re dropping it and jumping on another plabe for the short hop to San Jose (CA). 

I enjoyed this flight... in fact given the number of flights it's going to take me to go on holiday, it's just as well I like flying. and airports😜😂

By now. I was tired... I can't sleep on planes and was approaching the 24 hour up marker.  A hotel was sounding more tempting than the airport floor. Sod the cost. Given that I reached San Jose at a reasonable hour it made sense to get a decent nights sleep as I had another 2 planes tomorrow and even liking the airport experience, it was still exhausting. 

So when I landed in San Jose, I booked the nearest, cheapest (not that cheap) hotel and proceeded to get ripped  off by a cab driver for the 5 minute drive to my bed for the night.... I didn't care as by now I was almost delerious with fatigue. 

San Jose... cloudy... not that warm... but distinctly American. Despute the trials and tribulations of the previous 24 hours, I was enjoying myself.... even managing to laugh about the circumstances I found myself in... Breakfast stuffed down and back out to the airport, where I sit waiting for my flight to L. A. 

I went to check in my bags... laughing with the lady at the desk about the mix up and how I had ended up here. 

She laughed and comiserated in equal measure and then informed me that she would waive the baggage fee, given the journey I had had so far. How kind of her! Certainly not necessary but greatly appreciated. Alaska airline... my new favourite airline😁

I double checked that I was indeed heading to San José, Costa Rica and not back here and then headed off, through yet another security gate to my seat at the gate, looking out the window at the planes taking off and feeling strangely contented. 

I sit here listening to the announcements.... 

Would passenger so and so for Kaui please board the plane... now leaving from gate 19... 

last call for gate 19....

last last call for gate 19...

we love you.... but we will leave you 😂

All good things come to those who.. hop from airport to airport in a bid to make their final. destination.... 

San José, Costa Rica awaits... 

Fingers crossed I get there at last😁😂😜