Chapter One: I've Seen The Devil And It Isn't Barack H. Obama.
Charles De Gualle Airport, Paris, France. Time: 0920 Hrs 5 September, 2012.
Weather: Hazy and Warm.
Our arrival was by slow Taxi, a fine newish Audi automobile driven at a leisurely pace got us to the airport in 45 minutes through typical Paris traffic. We spoke few words to the driver, instead spent our time gawking at the passing scenery of the Paris Ring Road. Being mostly graffiti of unknown age, it was colorful and omnipresent. We arrived at 9:20 am at Terminal 2 where we were to board an American Airlines flight 0044 to Chicago on the way to San Francisco. Bags unloaded, driver paid, we pushed our luggage mounted on a 4 wheeled cart into the cavernous grey space. Before us was a bevy of French Army soldiers with the requisite pistols and machine guns that we've come to expect at Paris train stations but having seldom seen them at an air terminal were were made a bit curious. We initially turned right and pushed our way through the madding crowd to where we had remembered the American Airlines desks to be. Alas, we were struck to see Oman Airlines lines guarded by yet more French soldiers. Turning about, we retraced our steps back around the perimeter of good ol' CDG to see the American Airlines desk and hall before us in about 100 yards. Terrific.
The line drifted back and forth towards the desks, 4 employees of AA (American Airlines) staffed the pulpits. When asked, a nicely uniformed staffer told us that this was the line for Chicago...and pointed towards a wall some short distance away. We pushed the cart forward to see the line stretch away as far as the eye could see along the perimeter of the hallway, held in place by yards upon yards of American Airlines stanchions and webbing. We joined the minions and soon were shuffling slowly towards the check-in desks along with several hundred like minded souls. The plane was scheduled to depart CDG at 12:15 pm and we had now 2Hrs and 45 minutes to traverse check-in, security, and finally at the gangway to seats 31 E and F on the 767. 10 am came and went and we had just managed to get to the corner where the long line ahead was clearly visible. Time went by painfully slow as we shuffled our way down the hallway for the next 2 hours! We finally made it to the check-in counter to obtain our boarding passes at 12:16...the time the aircraft had been scheduled to depart CDG. At the counter is was the usual confusion when I announced "we have a service animal" to the kindly woman as she asked for our Passports and Furry's EU Pet Passport. "What is IT?" she asked sharply as I pointed to the bag that housed Furr-Rr-Eee. "Oh..." she said, voice trailing off, then, yelling to the AA employee next door said "They've got a Cat!", I replied "Not a Cat, a Service Animal" somewhat loudly. "Did you request a wheelchair?" she asked. "Yes" and then she handed me the Boarding Passes and said"Go sit over there, waving her hands toward the far off wall through the crowd. We pushed ahead, stumbled around the crowded walkway and found but 3 chairs where she had pointed, all filled with impatient AA passengers-to-be. We stood and eyed each other hopefully, my hip was hurting and Kelly was tired of the whole scene, afterall we had been in line and THERE at CDG for over three hours. Now we waited for the wheelchair for me. Kelly asked "Should I go ahead and get to the airplane?" I looked at her and said, "No, let's just wait." Shortly a chair openned up and I took it, a minute later the rest of the group rose and left us, Kelly sat down. A bare minute later the wheelchair and it's pusherman appeared anxiously and hurridly got me into and straped to the chair. We took off for the plane in a rush, he began to run saying "We're late, we're late!" I looked around and couldn't see Kelly who was some distance behind by now and I said to my guide "Please, slow down so she can catch up!" He pulled aside and we waited about 30 seconds til she appeared behind us about 50 feet through the crowd, then he was off again at breakneck speed!
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I'll publish this right now and continue it later...it's quite a story.
Charles De Gualle Airport, Paris, France. Time: 0920 Hrs 5 September, 2012.
Weather: Hazy and Warm.
Our arrival was by slow Taxi, a fine newish Audi automobile driven at a leisurely pace got us to the airport in 45 minutes through typical Paris traffic. We spoke few words to the driver, instead spent our time gawking at the passing scenery of the Paris Ring Road. Being mostly graffiti of unknown age, it was colorful and omnipresent. We arrived at 9:20 am at Terminal 2 where we were to board an American Airlines flight 0044 to Chicago on the way to San Francisco. Bags unloaded, driver paid, we pushed our luggage mounted on a 4 wheeled cart into the cavernous grey space. Before us was a bevy of French Army soldiers with the requisite pistols and machine guns that we've come to expect at Paris train stations but having seldom seen them at an air terminal were were made a bit curious. We initially turned right and pushed our way through the madding crowd to where we had remembered the American Airlines desks to be. Alas, we were struck to see Oman Airlines lines guarded by yet more French soldiers. Turning about, we retraced our steps back around the perimeter of good ol' CDG to see the American Airlines desk and hall before us in about 100 yards. Terrific.
The line drifted back and forth towards the desks, 4 employees of AA (American Airlines) staffed the pulpits. When asked, a nicely uniformed staffer told us that this was the line for Chicago...and pointed towards a wall some short distance away. We pushed the cart forward to see the line stretch away as far as the eye could see along the perimeter of the hallway, held in place by yards upon yards of American Airlines stanchions and webbing. We joined the minions and soon were shuffling slowly towards the check-in desks along with several hundred like minded souls. The plane was scheduled to depart CDG at 12:15 pm and we had now 2Hrs and 45 minutes to traverse check-in, security, and finally at the gangway to seats 31 E and F on the 767. 10 am came and went and we had just managed to get to the corner where the long line ahead was clearly visible. Time went by painfully slow as we shuffled our way down the hallway for the next 2 hours! We finally made it to the check-in counter to obtain our boarding passes at 12:16...the time the aircraft had been scheduled to depart CDG. At the counter is was the usual confusion when I announced "we have a service animal" to the kindly woman as she asked for our Passports and Furry's EU Pet Passport. "What is IT?" she asked sharply as I pointed to the bag that housed Furr-Rr-Eee. "Oh..." she said, voice trailing off, then, yelling to the AA employee next door said "They've got a Cat!", I replied "Not a Cat, a Service Animal" somewhat loudly. "Did you request a wheelchair?" she asked. "Yes" and then she handed me the Boarding Passes and said"Go sit over there, waving her hands toward the far off wall through the crowd. We pushed ahead, stumbled around the crowded walkway and found but 3 chairs where she had pointed, all filled with impatient AA passengers-to-be. We stood and eyed each other hopefully, my hip was hurting and Kelly was tired of the whole scene, afterall we had been in line and THERE at CDG for over three hours. Now we waited for the wheelchair for me. Kelly asked "Should I go ahead and get to the airplane?" I looked at her and said, "No, let's just wait." Shortly a chair openned up and I took it, a minute later the rest of the group rose and left us, Kelly sat down. A bare minute later the wheelchair and it's pusherman appeared anxiously and hurridly got me into and straped to the chair. We took off for the plane in a rush, he began to run saying "We're late, we're late!" I looked around and couldn't see Kelly who was some distance behind by now and I said to my guide "Please, slow down so she can catch up!" He pulled aside and we waited about 30 seconds til she appeared behind us about 50 feet through the crowd, then he was off again at breakneck speed!
----
I'll publish this right now and continue it later...it's quite a story.
