The day has arrived to leave on our long, awaited trip to Egypt. It is hard to believe we booked this trip in 2019 for a 2020 departure, which of course was canceled. We rescheduled for later in the year. Nope, that didn’t work out and a third time in 2022 which was nixed too. Finally, on January 19^th of 2023 we are headed for the KC airport.

   Paul needs to drop the ranch pickup off at the local mechanics on our way to Jennifer’s which will help Randall out so I follow him in the car and pick him up at Mike’s Repair. We arrive at our good friend Jennifer’s on the agreed upon time. We load our suitcases and backpacks in Jennifer’s car and head for Kansas City.

   We decide to eat lunch before dropping the car off at Park Air Express since there will be no food on our flight to Chicago. There is a barbeque restaurant close to Park Air, so we take advantage of the location. The food is fine and after we pay and are headed back to the car, Jennifer reaches into the inside pocket of her new jacket to get her wallet. It isn’t there! Not only isn’t it there Jennifer discovers that this “pocket” is open on the top and bottom. She rushes back to the restaurant only to meet the waitress who is hustling out the door with the lost wallet. That could have been a disaster! Why the heck is there a “pocket” that is open on both ends?

   We drop the car off at Park Air and climb into the shuttle which delivers us to the airport. Paul and I go to the check in counter and ask the woman there to add Paul’s global entry number into the system.  My number is in the system, and we have no idea why his isn’t but the woman adds it and we are good. We check our one bag and gather up all our boarding passes and wait. Jennifer has checked her bags and also received her boarding passes.

   When the time comes to board the plane, we are in the last group. The people checking tickets have been announcing over the microphone that they need passengers to check their carry-on bags as they are running out of overhead bin space. When it is finally our turn to board the plane, the woman scanning our boarding passe tells us we have no choice but to check our bags all the way to Cairo. Jennifer and I argue and tell her that is not going to happen as there is stuff in our carry-on bags that we need with us. The woman says she has to put the check through tag on anyway and then we can see if the flight attendants can find room for our bags.

    I am in the lead and walk onto the plane with my bag and tell the flight attendants that I need this bag with me. They say no problem, the bag is small enough and there is room for it. Jennifer and Paul are given the green light too. I swear, I get anxious enough in airports without this conflict to start our day off.

   We made it to Chicago on time which is a good thing as it is a madhouse here. We have a long way to walk to the international wing of the airport and we had to go through security again. For some reason of the three of us I am the only one that has Pre-check for this leg of our trip. A lot of good it did to get the woman at KC to put Paul’s global entry number in the system and why Jennifer’s isn’t pre-check makes no sense at all. Jennifer and Paul have to join the mass of humans inching along in the regular line. Oddly enough the pre-check line hardly moves at all and people including me are grumbling about the snail’s pace of our supposedly faster security line.  I soon lose sight of Jennifer and Paul which doesn’t help my nervousness.

  There is only one person in front of me now and I’ll be darned if a huge flight crew shows up at this time, at least 15 people. The crew walks around we two women to go through the security ahead of us. Are you kidding me! I finally am allowed to proceed to the conveyer belt, and I walk with confidence through the metal detector. The damn thing starts making a loud squealing noise that I have never heard before. I have nothing on me to set it off and the guy manning the detector tells me it is a random check. For crying out loud! Another woman is already waiting, and she is upset because she has a flight connection to make as I do, and we both don’t have that much time.

   Ten or fifteen minutes later I am finally motioned to go to the man that is conducting the search on we randomly chosen victims. He asks me for my cellphone and when I tell him I don’t have a cell phone, his eyebrows arch up. He speaks in a firm, loud voice and says, “Ma’am, I need to have your cell phone. I reply “Sir, I honestly do not have a cell phone. He sizes me up and decides I am telling him the truth. He then asks for my electronics. Oh brother, Paul has my tablet in the bags he is carrying, and I have to tell this guy that I have no electronics either. After a brief pause to scrutinize my face, I guess he decides that I am telling him the truth on this too.

    He waves me over to a machine and asks for my right hand which I do have with me. He begins to wipe it down and then crisscrosses it with something. I ask him what he is doing, and he tells me that he is checking for certain chemicals and powder. After that I have to place my palm on the machine and thankfully it turns green, and I am free to go.

    When I walk out of the security area there is no sign of my traveling companions. I see people walking with their luggage on the far side of where I am standing, and I wonder if Paul and Jennifer go out a different way. A young man is waiting in the same area, and I ask him if the pre-check line exits in a different place than the regular security. He assures me everyone comes out to the same area. He can see that I am very nervous and talks to me, assuring me that the plane will not leave without us since we have checked in. He then asks where we are going and gives me directions to our gate, admitting to me that we still have quite a distance to cover to reach our departure gate.

   I finally see Paul and Jennifer putting their luggage on the belt and walking through the metal detector. Paul never took his liquids and electronics out of his bags, and nothing was said to him. I should have just gone with Paul and Jennifer.

   We made it to our gate with ten minutes to spare but we have to get new tickets issued for some reason. We are nearly ready to hand our tickets over to board the plane when I realize my boarding pass is not in my passport. I lose it, wailing to Paul that I have lost my boarding pass. Jennifer assures me that they will issue a new pass, so I rush over to the desk and tell them in a shaky voice that I have lost my boarding pass. The woman calmly tells me that it is no problem and I soon have my new pass in hand. I am still shaking when I take my seat on the plane.

    Paul and I try to settle into what are extremely uncomfortable seats. If I find my seat unbearable you can imagine how miserable Paul is. I watch the new Top Gun movie which was really good and then try to sleep. Neither one of us can fall asleep so we split a sleeping pill and manage to get some shuteye, though it is not enough. Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, Paul and I agree that we are done with international travel and seal the deal with a high five slap.

   Nine and a half hours later we land in Zurich. We have no problems on this connection and board the plane without any glitches. Paul and I are sitting in an emergency exit so there are lots of leg room, but we are not allowed to have any of our carry-on luggage, so it gets scattered around to various overhead bins. After the cramped misery of the last flight, we are okay with that. Four hours later we land in Cairo. As Paul is pulling our coats out of the bin above our head a flight attendant sharply tells us we were not to put anything in that overhead as it is for emergency equipment. I inform her that we did not place them there, a flight attendant put them there when she saw them laying in our laps before we took off. The ticked off attendant wants to know who it was, and I tell her I thought she was the one that did it. The young woman insists it wasn’t her and Jennifer speaks up saying it was not this attendant but also backs up our story that it indeed it was another attendant that placed our coats in the forbidden bin.

    There is a helpful man sitting behind us that hands Paul and I our bags that got put in bins behind us. We shuffle out of the plane and as Paul is ready to step out of the plane into the walkway, he realizes he has left his Stetson on the plane. The attendant tells him to step aside and wait until everyone is off before he can go back to retrieve his hat. Well, isn’t this just a fitting way to end our marathon trip of twenty-four hours.

   Our OAT rep is waiting for us and is that a welcome sight. Ayman introduces himself and then asks for our visas. Umm, we were told to buy them here, so we join the rather long line of visitors waiting to get a 25-dollar visa. Ayman excuses himself and, in a bit, returns and beckons us to follow him. He takes us to the Egyptian Bank where there is one person ahead of us and then asks us for our passports and 25 bucks. Great. He takes us through passport control and then we go to the luggage carousal. While we wait for the luggage to show up, he asks us for our covid vaccine card so he can take a photo of them.  I can’t remember where my original card is, but Paul is carrying a copy and Ayman is fine with this. A few minutes later I remember where I stashed it and pull it out to see if he wants a photo of the original card, he shakes his head and says all is well.

   Our luggage shows up, Hurray, and we walk out to a waiting van. The traffic of Cairo is crazy. Where there should be two lanes of traffic sometimes there is 3 or 4 cars across. Ayman tells us lanes are only a suggestion here. To make things worse everyone is constantly honking. And there are pedestrians darting in and out of traffic as they try to cross this insane traffic. No rights for pedestrians here, you are on your own!

   We arrive at the Marriot hotel forty minutes after leaving the airport. We thank Ayman for making our arrival in Cairo so easy and he hands us off to the man that will be our guide for our adventure in Cairo. Hussein calls each of us by name and then gives us our room keys and a quick tour of the outside eating area and the building where we will be eating breakfast. Hussein leads us back into the hotel and bids us goodnight. We will not see him again until tomorrow afternoon when we will meet the rest of our group. We have come a day early.

    Once we get our things into our nice rooms, we meet in the lobby and go to eat supper. We decide to eat in the outside restaurant that serves Egyptian food. Paul and I order a chicken/eggplant/ rice dish which is very tasty. Jennifer had a fish dish if I remember right and thought it was very good too.

   We go back to our rooms, shower off the remnants of that long trip over here and go to bed. Nancy