Home

At the airport in San Pedro Sula, we were able to have a long parting with Nate, Cori and the kids. The unsecured portion of the airport, shops, eateries and check-in counters are now open to the general public, so we were able to spend an additional hour together as we waited to go through security. The airport there is not a large affair, so getting checked in and through security is a fairly easy exercise. Since we take Mama’s walker with us when we travel, we are given preferential treatment. We are often allowed to pass by long lines of queued up passengers waiting their turn to get to an agent. So, after having an extra hour to visit before finally saying goodbye, we were through security in less than fifteen minutes. With only four gates on the concourse, a change of gate is easily accomplished.

Mama and I got home to our own bed about 1 am this morning after a good couple flights moving us from Honduras to Texas. We had a bit of a hassle in Miami as we were steered through customs to make our connecting flight, but we did eventually make it thanks to the continuous help from willing employees who can easily detect the desperate, lost looks on passengers navigating the maze of interconnecting hallways. If my calculations are correct, Mama and I walked more than one mile inside the Miami airport to get from the gate where we deplaned, through customs, retrieve our luggage arriving from Honduras to the United States, recheck our bags, get rescanned for security and arrive at our gate for the departing flight. It was actually good that we had a four-hour layover, we used about an hour and a half just getting rechecked for the stateside flight.

On our way through security, Mama, as usual, set off the metal detector because of her replaced knee, but, for some reason, I also set off the alarm. We were instructed to go to a different scanner where the line of other failed passengers was queued up to get a full body scan. Unfortunately, there was no one at that scanner to check us through. Meanwhile, our carry-on items, purse and backpack, with all our valuables, wallets, and passports sat at the outlet of the conveyor where they had initially been scanned through. After waiting for almost ten minutes, I asked the agent at a normal walkthrough scanner right beside the special body scanner if I could try again to pass through his scanner. I passed through without any alarm. Once through, I hurried to gather our items. Fortunately, an officer had taken it upon himself to guard our belongings. Praise the Lord!

We had a relaxed meal at a Cuban café in the airport, almost forgetting Mama’s carry-on suitcase at the counter of the restaurant. The restaurant was set up cafeteria style, so I was carrying my backpack while strolling Mama’s carry-on bag, and at the same time balancing the tray with my food selections in it as I moved from the food counter to the cash register counter. Mama moved her bag to the counter for me and we settled up for the meal. When we left the cashier, I forgot to keep the carry-on bag with me. A very conscientious waiter found us and showed us a picture of the bag we had left, and we quickly retrieved it. The cashier had been overseeing the bag for us. It is amazing how quickly something like that can happen when we get distracted, but I was more interested in getting my credit card put away than in tending to our baggage.

Mama and I both napped off and on through the three hours it took us to fly from Miami to Dallas. I had gotten up a little before 5 am Tuesday morning. For some reason, Mama and I had been getting up very early each morning – before 6 am local time – to drink our morning coffee and get our Bible reading done before the grandchildren got up. Mornings re wonderful there. The morning noises from the birds starts a little before dawn but is quickly drowned out by the noise of traffic which picks up around 7 am. Since the windows are open all the time in the living room and dining room, those sounds freely float in on the morning breezes. Because of that early morning, we were both a bit tired as we made the last leg of our trip.

Norman picked us up at Terminal C in DFW a little after midnight and we hurried home. Everything was unpacked over the course of the day. Mama took her time this morning. She caught up with Grandma and Grandpa about our trip via pictures on her phone. She slowly drank her coffee as she enjoyed her recliner for the first morning in two weeks. Even after getting to bed at 1 am, I was up at 6:15 to get ready for work. I worked from home today because of the international travel. Tomorrow and Friday I will be teaching classes from our HQ house. Both the classes are 4-hour classes but teaching remotely will continue to keep me isolated from my colleagues for the remainder of the week. Just to be on the safe side. We still have several people at the office that worry about those sort of things.

Looking back on our trip, I believe the highlight was our dolphin encounter on Roatan. The time in Honduras was more-or-less relaxed, unhurried. Most of that was because Cori and Nate had everything planned out well, but really it was because none of us were anxious about anything that had been planned. The trip to Roatan, despite the accident with the construction equipment, was almost lazily accomplished. We never felt hurried in any of the activities on the mainland or on the island throughout the two weeks we spent there. Because we have linked bank accounts with Cori and Nate, handling the money Mama and I needed to have available was seamless. For me, that made covering expenses very easy for me and far less of an issue for Nate because we did not have to constantly convert cash from dollars to lempiras as we have done in the past.

Mama and I agreed that this was our best trip so far, nevertheless, we are happy to be home.