...then it most certainly will.

"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into." ~ O. Hardy

The bright spot about mucking about in Boston is that with all my seat-of-the-pants navigating I did end up getting to the airport without paying a toll, a win in my book. Got the rental returned, they sure charge a lot for dropping a car off at a different location even if Manchester was glad to be sending a car back to Boston. You think they'd pay me.

I thought I'd just drop my luggage off at the ticket counter, go through security and chill with all the shops, restaurants, etc. on the other side. I was sadly mistaken. Emirates ticket counter is not open (until 4 hours before the flight and I arrived 6 hours early.) Luckily there is a restaurant this side of security which I couldn't have gotten through in any case since I didn't have a boarding pass. They have beer. ("In Saudi there is no beer, that's why we drink it here.") Since I really didn't have any breakfast and nothing for lunch and darn little for dinner the night before, it seemed an early dinner wouldn't be bad. Unfortunately, they did not have any pork on the menu. I'd been bulking up on that for the same reason as above. And that friends is why I got the BLT at Tony's I-75 Diner the previous weekend. (Those who don't know about Tony's won't know that their BLT consists of 1 lb of bacon.) So, I had the fish and chips with clam chowder. Wasn't bad but wasn't all that great either. The beer was good.

Then to go sit on the floor (since there weren't enough seats) and wait. On the plus side, this lady had a dog that she let me pat - it probably smelled our dogs on me so we hit it off.

Finally, the ticket gates open. The mad rush is on (if you have ever seen some people from some certain regions of the world and how they act around modes of travel then you'd understand - think of any show you have seen of train stations in India.) One guy was trying to get a 65" TV on board, they must be really cheap here in the U.S.

The worst thing, and at the same time the best thing, was that Emirates only allows one carry on for coach class. I appreciated that since I have seen flights where some people really push the limit of how many bags, etc. they try to pack in the overhead or under their seats. The bad thing for me was I had a backpack with my laptop and another one with a bunch of other stuff. If you'll remember, I thought my suitcases were a little empty, turns out there was enough room for one of the packs. One was 21 kg and the other one was actually over the 23 kg limit but the woman sort of looked aside and said it was OK. Whew!

Next stop the gate. I availed myself of another beer since it was calling my name. Thought I was going to end up with a middle seat but got a window. Not always the best choice for a 12-hour flight, I prefer the aisle seat just like the guys in Sneak Previews. They served a semi okay meal a couple hours in - with alcoholic beverages, w00t! Watched a movie that I hadn't seen, and did end up sleeping a little since I had gotten very little sleep the night before.

The flight was rough with lots of times with turbulence. I wake up in time for the breakfast and another movie I hadn't seen before. One thing I will say in Emirates favor is they have the cleanest potties of any of the Middle East airlines I have flown on.

Unfortunately, we land late, likely as a result of trying to avoid some of the many storms across the Atlantic. I've never been to Dubai airport before and the signage left something to be desired. There were quite a number of very helpful staff along the way though. Since the last in/first out leg of flight are required to be on Saudi Airlines I had to go down two floors, take a train to the transfer/baggage terminal and then take a bus to the connections terminal. At the bus stop a helpful young lady helping direct travelers observed that I would not make my next flight since check-in had closed and there was no way I could get a boarding pass and on the 9 p.m. flight. Now would be the time to panic were it not for my keen sense of acting like a duck.

Luckily, I had already known my cell phone could make wifi calls and I set that up. First call was to the travel booking company - Abby understood the urgency if I was to make the 11 p.m. flight but since the tickets were not supposed to be modified, she had to jump through some hoops and get approval to make the adjustments necessary. I just have to wait for her call back, clock is ticking. 

I send a flurry of texts, emails and phone calls to my main HR contact, my boss, and the KSA HR contact (since he had set up the person to pick me up at the Jeddah airport.) Also had to let my wife know my status. This is all before getting on the bus to the connections terminal. When I get there it is sit-and-wait since while I was in the system for the next flight it wasn't' quite set and we had to wait for the travel agent to get it squared away. The clock is ticking ever closer to the eleven o'clock hour. I just get a call from Abby in Georgia (state, not country) telling me the flight was booked when the ticket agent waived me up to the counter. Finally, had my boarding pass and was assured that my luggage would be on the flight. One more fun trip through security and head for the gate. I am happy my seat is on the inside of the plane at least. It's a three-hour flight from Dubai to Jeddah, one more movie? The potty on this flight however was somewhat less than sterile if you know what I mean. However, landings equaled take-offs and we were on the usual long drive to the gate.

Getting off the plane, the first thing I notice is that the weather is surprisingly cool. It's a whole lot different from the Michigan that I left. Now the long wait getting through immigration. I get into line and I didn't even have time to tap out a text when a gentleman, accompanied by one of the KSA security men, comes up to me and says to follow him (ahead of everyone else in line) and the soldier walks me right up to the desk. The woman does all the necessary scanning of finger prints, photo (I bet I looked really handsome after all that travel) and it was on to baggage claim.

Bad part here was that my luggage must have been the first ones loaded on to the plane because they were quite literally the last ones on to the conveyor. My drive whisks me and my luggage out to a Ford Tahoe and we are off to the compound. It is almost 3 a.m. local time - I have been up for over 25 hours. 

The drive and driver are both very nice. The traffic patterns have changed significantly since KSA has expanded its use of cameras for enforcement (speeding, running stop lights, not switching lanes in time to turn, etc.) and it really shows compared to what I remember from 7 +/- years ago. We drive in through the security at the compound and while I won't describe it (it wouldn't be appropriate to discuss) suffice to say it is very good security. The driver got me to my apartment at the compound and with that I will end this chapter.