Turkey - Gate1 - October 2019

Got up around 8:30 - was nice to sleep in a bit (vs 6:30 on workdays!) Bed/room were comfortable. Wandered down to get coffee and I see a lady sitting in the lobby with 2 police officers. I’m thinking - ok what did someone steal from this lady? Not exactly what you want to see in the lobby! Well, it wasn’t much - just her car! Turns out she is from Belgium, arrived at JFK and rented a car. Drove it to the hotel and it was either a hybrid or something running very quietly. She had the keys with her, but she had to push a button to turn the car off , which apparently she didn’t realize. So the car was running when some woman wandered by on the sidewalk and noticed the interior light on, so looked in, saw the door was unlocked (because you can’t lock the car when it is running, or that is my guess) and got in and drove off! Super 8 had it all on tape so hopefully the cops will catch her. How’s that for your first day in America? I can’t imagine - what a nightmare that will be! (Personally, I feel all rental companies fail in a major way by not going over with you how all the controls work before letting you drive off).

Managed to hang out at the motel till 1pm when we had to go to the airport. So we have about 5 hrs to go before takeoff. Ugh. But this gives me some time to catch up on this. Counter at Turkish Air doesn’t open for about 3 hrs and no kiosks in evidence, so I reckon we’ll be standing in line to get boarding passes (pain in the keester) since I see no kiosks at Turkish Air and my attempt to get them via the mobile app failed again.

Got checked in at 3:30. They weighed our carry-ons (you’re allowed 8kg). We hit the scales at 9 and 9.2. Fortunately they let it go without additional charges! Long queue to go through TSA

Glad to have TSA precheck. Sped past a gazillion people. Didn’t even have to go through the scanner. They let us through a separate gate but when I passed through it , the RFID protector for my passport set off alarms and that took a few minutes to figure out. The guy was sure I had some metal on me but a more experienced agent stepped in and took the protector. We were in the precheck line but there were still people taking off shoes and belts for some strange reason. It was pretty much mass chaos which isn’t unusual

Leaving about 8:30- roughly 1 1/2hrs behind schedule. Probably the rain

So we’re sitting directly in front of 2 young girls who sound like they are going to discuss the mission of Jesus and the Bible for the next 10 hrs and at high volume and now now the other seatmate has chimed in. This will soon have me converting to Islam. And my seatmate on the aisle has BO. He was going to find another seat because he didn’t feel like being converted but was unsuccessful. So bring on the booze I’m gonna need it!

Well I just thought we were leaving. Now 9 pm. Plane is moving though!Read more