When we left Bolivia, we had a lot of people meet us at the airport to say goodbye. It was bitter-sweet. We felt very loved, but at the same time, saying goodbye is rarely easy. Most of Gerson's family was there, as well as some of our very good friends.When we arrived at the Santa Cruz airport, we had no idea what an ordeal we had ahead of us. Due to the increased airport security after Christmas, we had to go through 4 security checkpoints just to leave Bolivia. At the last checkpoint, we were frisked --- even Jayden was frisked! This caused our take-off to be delayed by an hour. Thankfully, our flight from Santa Cruz to Miami was uneventful. We put down our tray tables and made a bed for Jayden. He slept very well!
When we arrived in Miami, we had to go through customs. Normally, it's a painless process. But, again, the security had been tightened. All the lines were long, but we always manged to pick the line that didn't MOVE. (Why is it always that way when one is in a hurry?) We only had an hour nad a half to catch our connecting flight. Do you think we made it?
Nope. By the time we picked up our luggage, went through security, and rechecked our luggage outside of customs, we knew we were cutting it close. We RAN to our gate (in fact, I was quite winded when we arrived), and much to our surprise our plane was still at the gate. However, the agent would not allow us to board. We watched out the window as our luggage made the flight, knowing we wouldn't make it. So sad. . . The nice agent got us on the next flight, which was several hours away.
So, we found a quiet knook in the Miami airport, kicked off our shoes, and prepared for the long wait.
Jayden crawled everywhere. He played with the yellow car the nice agent gave us an apology for not allowing us to board our flight. It was nice gesture and it did help occupy Jayden . . . for a few minutes, anyway.
He also enjoyed using the seats as drums, tapping out rhythms and keeping busy.
He was curious and both Gerson and I tried to keep him occupied. Of course, he had been the only one of the three of us to sleep on our flight from Santa Cruz to Miami. So, Jayden was full of energy while Gerson and I were SLEEPY.
I finally gave out and took a nap. As you can see, Jayden was still going strong.
But, all the playing finally wore him out, too, and we made him a makeshift bed on the airport floor where he took a short nap.
We made our last two flights, but the trip that should have taken us about 14 hours ended up taking 25 hours. LONG day. My cousin Amy and sister Jamie picked us up in Indy and brought us home to Marion. Then we rested and began the process of unpacking. As much as I love to travel, I was super happy to be home!
