I made it!!!

So I thought that Wednesday was a difficult day. But nature seemed to be out to get me at both ends of this trip. Thursday morning we headed off to the airport to do it all over agin, still snowing, so without a great deal of confidence that I would leave, hoping that Wednesday wouldn´t be repeated. But no problem, the flight was on time, and we got off to Miami. And arrived there in good time, time for me to find a Starbuck´s and get my caffeine fix, sit awhile and think that things were going really well this time. Then went to look for my next flight on the departures board. Funny, it´s not there. Try another board. Not there either. So I went to find someone to ask, and was given the unhappy news that Guayaquil airport was closed because of the erupting volcano!! And so my flight wouldn´t be going anywhere until 6 the next morning. I simply couldn´t believe it. But what do you do - nothing to do but get used to the idea and then figure out what to do. 14 hours to put in at Miami airport. Which I did, wandered around trying to get information from various people, then went outside and sat in the warm Florida breeze for awhile. Made some phone calls home,and then got supper. I was told that there was an auditorium upstairs in a disused part of the airport where they would be setting up cots for all the stranded passengers. So I went off to find it ( I began to feel like the guy in "The Terminal", finding odd corners of the airport). Sure enough there were rows of canvas cots all set up with a tiny pillow and blanket. I staked a claim to one, and it did feel good to finally stretch out. I had thought I be spending the night upright in a chair. But I think I have an inklling now of how it feels to be a refugee. (Not really, I know that is something much worse) It was just lying down on a cot in this huge room full of cots and mostly Spanish speaking people. I think all the rich white folks had gone to hotels. But I did sleep a bit, but gave up at 2:30 and went back downstairs. I wasn´t going to take any chances on missing that plane if it went at 6.
And it did go, and I didn´t miss it, and by 10:15 I had landed in Guayaquil. And now I´m here, feeling slightly stunned and unreal, but a good night´s sleep should fix that. And after all the problems getting here, I´am very thankful to have finally made it.