I flew on Saturday fully expecting to be leaving on Sunday afternoon for Charleston and all that was on my mind was making nachos for the crew on the flight to Port Au Prince, Haiti. I took some photos and they were delicious, thank you for asking:

 

And yes, the crew loved the nachos! Doreen was so busy scarfing some down, she could only raise her pinky in approval:

This was until I took a look at the lineup of people wanting to get on the flight. Scary, scary! With no backup flights from Miami, I had to move fast. So I called Delta and booked a flight with them from Fort Lauderdale which at least had some backups. Problem is, the flight left for Atlanta at 5:45 a.m.- a little over eight hours from then. I had to move fast. So I packed like a demon, called Janet and told her to get ready for me to arrive a tad earlier than expected. I set my alarm for three a.m. and tried to sleep fast.

Alarm rang at three and I got moving. I moved so fast, when I got to the Delta counter at a little after four, this is what I was greeted with:

Yup. All dressed up and nobody to check me in. Finally, the gate agents arrived at 4:30 and I was whisked through and set out for security and the gate. Naturally, the first flight was full, but I made it on the 6:45 to Atlanta:

A short walk and a tram ride later, followed by a long walk, I made it to the gate where the flight to Charleston was departing. Atlanta’s a cool airport with great shops and some nice restaurants. See the bookstore?

I made it to the gate with time to spare for a 9:35 departure. I called Janet and told her it was looking good to get on. The minute I got the boarding pass in my hand, I rang Janet and simply said, “I’m on. I’ll be there at 10: 51.” I found my seat which of course was the overwing exit row. Fine by me! I just happen to know how to operate those exits. My seat mate was a young guy reading Thomas Hardy. Kind of heavy material for such an early flight. So I said, “Thomas Hardy? At this hour?” We began talking and Jon, a student at Clemson, was a sharp guy and wanted to work n a museum doing restoration work. Very cool! Here’s Jon, rocking a bit of a Tiger Woods look. Don’t you think? Ironically, his Mom is Haitian and he freaked when I told him I had been to Haiti the day before. (Well, at this point about 14 hours before…)

It was actually a fun flight!

46 minutes later, we were in Charleston, Janet was at the gate, and my bag that I had checked in at 4:30 in the morning, full of Chop ingredients and my sneakers was waiting for me at baggage claim:

It was a long day, so by 9 p.m. I looked like this:

With Tango, Janet’s dog and Lily her cat, perched on the pillow above my head.

Today is a new day and we’re going shopping for Chop ingredients and do some preliminary cooking. Stay tuned!