My alarm went off at 5:00. I showered, dressed, ate, and tended to the dog. I awoke Joan and said good-bye and was on the road by 6:45. I arrived in Brevard by 7:00 and went over to Bauslaugh's under overcast skies. I awoke Steph and Abbey and then Steph drove me to the airport. We arrived at the same time as Chelsea and her parents. We said our good-byes and went over to the Delta counter. Motley and his dad arrived soon after we then learned that Delta wanted to put us on a flight that would get us in to MIA an hour before our international flight…No Way!

After considerable arguing, theDelta agent found a flight to Fort Lauderdale and gave us ground transportation and meal vouchers, estimating we would get to MIA around 3:30, two hours ahead of schedule. Samm, Jayne, and April arrived and we were all outfitted with vouchers. We boarded and took off in the rain. Within an hour we landed in a heavy rain in Atlanta. We had a half an hour to change planes arriving at our gate with boarding underway. Most of us were put in business class. It was still pouring as we took off. The 2.5 hour flight was uneventful and we landed under still overcast skies.

While the students collected our bags, I found the ground transportation agent. He quickly got us a driver and van. Within half an hour of our arrival we were on I-95, heading for Miami. It took about 45 minutes to get to the airport.

We had our first taste of the chaos that is Argentina at the Aerolineas Argentinas check-in. First of all, the counters had BWIA agents until 4:00. They used the next available agent system. When Aerolineas took over we were at the front of the line. Then an Aerolineas agent came out and took down the tapes. Iimmediately, a throng of people surged forward to form 8 lines. Samm managed to hold our place. Then, after checking our bags, we had to carry them to TSA. They already had a huge pile of bags to pass through the detector. Of course, no one wanted to leave until their bags went through so a large crowd blocked access to TSA for our bags. Again, Samm made it through and we fed her all of our bags. Instead of waiting our rumbling stomachs reminded us of our free lunch vouchers so we went to Chili’s and chowed down.

I noticed I had a phone message. It was Todd. The Ferrum group had their Roanoke to Charlotte flight cancelled. They wouldn’t get to Miami until at least 5:30.

We saw that our bags went through after dinner, so we went through security. I got a phone call from Carmen and Jaime who were having problems at the Aerolineas desk but they soon cleared up.

The Brevard group went to Gate 19 and waited. I thought I recognized Victoria and Megan sitting near us but wasn’t sure. When Carmen and Jaime arrived and they came over to join them and us. María arrived a few minutes later. Samm kept busy serving the Brevard people a special Coca-Cola recipe she had.