The day did not get off to an auspicious start. My sister-in-law's father had recently passed away. The funeral service was scheduled for 2:00 p.m. We had to be at the airport for 3:00 so we were forced to miss the service.
At the airport our check-in, safety check, and immigration clearance went smoothly. In the international waiting area, I bought some Brazilian reais and I find that they charged me an exorbitant rate compared to what I exchanged my American dollars for in Brazil. Oh, well...mistake, but they certainly were to come in handy when we landed in Sao Paulo.
After boarding the plane we taxied to the de-icing area where we got in the line-up. This delayed us by over a half hour - not much but enough to have us scrambling when we arrived in Chicago. When we arrived there, we had an hour to find a tram that took us across the tarmac past taxiing planes to the next terminal. Fortunately our luggage was being transferred internally by United. In the next terminal, of course, our gate was at the extreme opposite end of the terminal. We were to find that this seemed to be our fortune on almost all of our flights-to-be.
We got to our gate to join the long lineups. First step was to prove we had a visa. Then we got our boarding passes. Finally we were on our plane, the largest passenger plane in the world. This one was full at 365 passengers, most of whom were either returning home for carnival or who were visitors going to experience carnival.
At 10:00 p.m. we lumbered off onto the runway. With a sound louder than thunder from a near-miss lightning strike, the two large engines revved up, and we were off on our 10,000 km trip!
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