Day 16 - The day Theresa was detained in PHL!!

What red wine pairs best with a 
chocolate dount?

We got up early to get ready and wrapped up, and make it to breakfast by 7AM.  Then out the door by 8:01 heading to the airport bus.  It was VERY quick and convenient!  At the airport, we got checked in, bags checked (heaviest was 22.5 kg (49.6 lb) which was PERFECT for rechecking in the US.  Since we were Business Class, we also got the “VIP/Fast Pass” which was almost as fast as we could walk through.  In less than 5 minutes, we were inside, and heading to the lounge.  It is Friday in Lent, so meat was off limits (bummer, because they had an assortment of interesting looking options).

Finally, it was time to head to the gate.  We started walking.  And walking.  As we passed a United airplane on a hardstand (not a jet bridge), but next to an AA plane on a jet bridge, we made the mistake of laughing (we = Bill).  Well, fun fact, Gate E85 is the LAST jet bridge in Terminal 1.  We were heading to Gate E86.  Which was a stairwell down to a holding area, where…we boarded a bus to our plane on a hard stand. 

At least the "no gate" situation gave me a great picture!!

Our flight was good and almost everything went perfectly.  Well…  We started with a movie (Bill picked one that neither of us had heard of, but looked like it might be interesting (Astronaut).  Theresa was NOT diggin’ it, so 30 minutes in, we pivoted.  We tried Rental Family which was supposed to be a comedy.  We could NOT figure out what was comedic about it!!  I won’t say it was awful, but…it was as fun as a doctor’s waiting room.  Finally, we pivoted to a TV show, “Masters of the Air”, which follows the lives of a group of WWII US Army Air Force pilots based in England.  THAT was good!!  It has a great balance of humor and drama.  We watched all four episodes, finishing as we landed in Philadelphia. 

Somewhere along the line during this trip, we were watching TV and the only thing interesting was “To Catch a Smuggler – Lima Peru”, which profiled the Customs officers in the Lima airport.  Well, one thing led to another, a joke or two was made about Theresa having to deal with “To Catch a Smuggler…Philly Style!”  We go to Global Entry, and Bill gets through with no problems.  Theresa…gets the “See Officer” notice.  Bill watches to see how long it will take her, and then sees her leave the officer’s box and head to “Secondary Screening”.  Suddenly, it becomes real!!  Well, Bill goes and gets the bag, and prepares some options for telling the story, including different ways to pick on Theresa’s Mom.  In the end it was just a little issue of “paperwork”.  Theresa bought her ticket several months ago, but then changed her passport, so had a new number.  Once they confirmed why the numbers didn’t match, it was all good.  But she had to stop by and have an AA agent fix her record to show the new number. 

When we bought the flights, it was significantly more for a direct flight to DFW (or same day connecting through PHL) than for us to spend the night in PHL on the way home.  Well, we can get a heck of a hotel night in PHL for what we saved, so… we fly out tomorrow.  We checked into the airport Marriott, which was a quick walk from the terminal.  If you ever missed the hotels of the 80’s and earlier, or wondered what it was like back then…come out to the Marriott in PHL, and relive the 80s!  But they have a lounge with some snacks, and some appetizers for later, so we’ll do that and probably get to bed early tonight!