The best laid plans are usually those that are well thought out and planned to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Traveling during COVID has always been fraught with our best laid plans that went suddenly astray. Well, in this case – so far so good! The week started out not so good as we watched an ice storm decimate the area leaving people without power and flights cancelled or delayed across the country, As Dave chipped away at the driveway trying to break up the ice rink in what used to be the area that masqueraded as our driveway, Kathy tried to get some last minute work caught up. (…or, that was her excuse anyway) Anxiously watching the flights, we figured we were safe to embark on our trip to the airport. We drove Kathy’s car to Dave’s brother’s house for the ride to the airport, even though its dashboard was awash with blinking lights and warning signals reminding us that we had an expensive car repair to come home to. Why did we take this car when it was so obviously sick? Dave’s car caught the dreaded “car” disease from Kathy’s car being so close to it in the garage. At least we had taken Kathy’s car to the shop and knew what needed to be fixed when we returned. Kathy held her breath as we drove to get to the airport. Fortunately, we arrived safely at the next stop. With a warning to George not to worry about the colorful display on the dashboard, we were soon off to get our flight.
So far so good……oh, no! The first delay!! Luckily it was a short delay and soon we were on our way to JFK, and then from JFK to Buenos Aires. After the 10-hour flight, we had a quick exit through Argentinian customs, where we were waved through with no baggage check. We were soon in the heat of the South American summer, quickly shedding our layers. We basked in the warmth of the bright yellow sun hitting our faces, and the ice rink we called our driveway was a distant memory. Checking into the hotel we were soon up in our room where we deposited our luggage and set off exploring the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. Even though we had been up for 24 hours, we needed to keep going to stave off jet lag and sleep only at night. We walked and walked, discovering a museum where we learned about the history of the presidents of Argentina and visited Metropolitan Cathedral where we stood where Pope Francis once preached. We wandered through older sections where we admired the classical architecture and remarked upon the juxtaposition of old classical stone buildings that butted up against sleek glass and metal modern structures. Next step to meet with Kyle and Henry where we had scheduled a “food pizza” tour (which really was going to two different pizza shops where we had an opportunity to try the same pizza) and then an ice-cream shop where the “scoopers ”dazzled us with their artistic rendering of scoops of ice-cream. Eating our ice-cream we were entertained with some transgender entertainers who were trying to cajole the local pedestrians to come see their show. (PS. Dave was not so entertained…) We enjoyed watching the reactions of the people who walked by, some who gave the entertainers a wide berth and some who enjoyed interacting with them. The tour, while okay, did not wow us and Henry questioned the difference between the pizzas?? Different shops maybe?
The 2-mile walk back to the hotel was a gauntlet of people and, as we dodged and weaved, we were surrounded with a cacophony of noises from music, to people laughing and the ever present sound of traffic. It was a skillful test of Dave’s ability to map out our route while simultaneously scanning the crowd for potential issues. Safely back in our room we collapsed exhausted from the last 36 hours and slept until the late hour of 5 am when Kathy woke up wondering why the cats had not woken her up as yet.
Morning saw us head towards the boat where we met with Kyle and Henry. Kyle is an experienced “cruiser” and whipped us through the check-in process. Soon we were on deck, enjoying a leisurely lunch where we again got to people watch. The rest of the day was spent recovering and relaxing and we ended it with an evening show of dancers who fluidly swung their legs around, in, out and above showing us the agility and skill of South American Tango dancers. Dave swears their legs had to be made of rubber, as nimble as the moved. Next stop was our bed where Dave promptly fell asleep. During the night, Kathy noticed Dave was very hot, and innocently decided to “help” Dave sleep better by throwing the covers off the bed. Unfortunately, Dave then started shivering after going from sweating to being in the air-conditioned room air. He started blindly grasping for wherever the covers may be. Sometimes the best laid plans don’t work out and, in this case, all planning should be left to Dave.