June 8, 2011: Brevard, NC to Quito, Ecuador
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2011
1
10
Trip End
Jun 17, 2011
Brevard, North Carolina
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The start of the trip was a little rough when, the night before, at about 10:00, Mark Migliore called to say he was not going because of an ongoing health issue. It's a shame he waited so long to make that decision; someone else could have filled that spot.
Anyhow, I got up at 6:00 and had breakfast. After working out on the Nordic-Trac, I finished packing and was ready by 8:30. Alice and LeGrand arrived a few minutes late, at 9:15. We loaded my bags into Alice’s trunk and took off. Alice Weldon is a Professor of Spanish at UNC-Asheville. We've been good friends since we were both on the Western Carolina University faculty in the mid-90's. LeGrand Smith is an old friend of Alice's who has donated books and fossils to Brevard College. We first met about 10 years ago. He is a retired Methodist minister and was a missionary in Bolivia. While in Bolivia, he became the leading expert on Bolivian trilobites. At least one genus and several species of trilobites are named after him.
I drove the first segment, heading west on US 64 to Sapphire and then down NC 281. We stopped on SC 11 for gas. I let Alice take over the driving from there. The three of us conversed in Spanish most of the way to the Atlanta airport. Elena arrived at Atlanta from Denver at 11:00 so we were texting each other to keep her informed of our impending arrival. We made remarkably good time in light traffic, arriving a little after noon.
Electronic check-in at Delta didn’t work for any of us so the helpful Delta woman put us on a long slow line to the desk handling kiosk check-in problems. Is there a message here?
When we were finally checked in, we made our way through security and arrived at our gate three hours early.. I sent a text to Elena who was told to go to a different gate and she came over and joined us. It was a good reunion; I hadn’t seen her in a month.
The rest of our group gradually filtered in. I didn’t recognize Al Finch without his glasses. It was good to see him and Kaye again. They went to Egypt with us. Al is a Psychology professor at the Citadel. They introduced us to Gary Wilson and Josie Templeton who were also in our group. Gary and Josie are Exercise Science professors at the Citadel and friends of the Finches. Gary is retired but Josie is still teaching. Carol Faust is a former Flat Rock resident who saw the trip advertised on my website. Stephen McKee, from Winston-Salem, NC; Madeline Sonner, Charlotte, NC; and Olivia Carlile, Birmingham, AL arrived soon after. Charles Gardner, a former North Carolina State Geologist, from Asheville, was the last to arrive to round out those of us traveling from Atlanta. Soon after Charles arrived, we were told that our gate was changed from E 15 to A 23. We all boarded the train and moved to the new location.
Not surprisingly, we experienced numerous Delta delays as they switched planes. We finally took off after 6:00 and headed south toward Ecuador. It was a good flight and we arrived right at 11:00. Everyone’s luggage made it and Jorge, from Columbus Travel, was there to greet us with a bus that took us to the Hotel Vieja Cuba. As we checked in, Gary Bussard and Took, professors in the Business program at Susquehanna University, came down and introduced themselves. The arrived the day before.
Elena and I got a great room. The hotel was very nice with each room having its own character. We got to bed a little after midnight and soon fell asleep.
