I arrived late (10 PM) last night in Miami and went to pick up my car at Budget “Fastbreak” where you simply go to the car area and pick up your papers and car, thereby skipping the normal long lines at the customer service area. The kiosk was dark but there were rental packets ready for customers. Indeed I found mine and proceeded to slot “D34” to claim my Dodge SUV. The slot was empty….hmmmm. Perhaps they printed the wrong slot so I walked around looking for a vehicle with the proper license plates. No luck, so I had to retrace my steps back up two floors to the customer service booth, which luckily was still manned at 11PM. No excuse was given as to why there was no car; he simply pulled up another and created new paperwork. Soon I was back in the car area and found that my newly assigned Nissan Tracker was not a car or SUV.  It was a darn 4 door pickup truck! Rather than trudging back upstairs I simply went on my way with my first time ever rental of a pickup!

I slept in and had made arrangements to meet a cousin (David Bishop, youngest son of one of my dad’s brothers) who lives in the area for lunch and to review our lives from the days when we were kids in Gary, Indiana. It has been 40 plus years since seeing each other so there was a whole lot of catching up to do. Stories and more stories were told. Dave was an avid fisherman when he was younger and held the world record for catching a 400+ lb marlin on a 15 pound test line. He fought the fish for over 5 hours. I asked if he still held the record and he said someone else broke it only a few weeks later, proving once again fame can be fleeting. We shared stories and pictures of our lives, our respective kids and grandkids over lunch. It was nice reconnecting.

I was somewhat concerned about the effects of the government shutdown on airport security lines but it has not been a problem. It only took 15 minutes to clear security. People in line readily thanked the TSA personnel on duty for continuing to work during the “mess”.

I am now resting in the business class lounge (one of the better ones I have seen) of LATAM, my carrier to Santiago, Chile and Puerto Montt. My flight to Santiago leaves at 9:35 PM. Rather than eating a heavy meal they will be serving around midnight, I plan to pass and simply try to get some sleep during the 9 hour flight to Santiago. Instead l am snacking on the many nice offerings here in the lounge.

Tomorrow I will be in Puerto Varas, Chile where our tour begins.