Getting to and from Brazil

We did it!  We made it to Brazil.  The map above shows all the flights it took to get there and back.  Jared, Lydia and I felt out of the Charlottesville Airport on Monday July 31st.  We flew to Atlanta and then on to Salt Lake City.  Flights went great.  Our plan was to have me drop them off at Mark's Mom's house and then meet Mark in Atlanta on Thursday to then fly to Rio De Janeiro together.  This is where things got tricky.  Due to some severe thunderstorms our flights getting to Rio looked bad.  Mark texted me Tuesday night asking if I could be ready to leave Wednesday (August 01st) instead of Thursday and fly to JFK to meet him and then fly to San Paulo instead.  He would need to find coverage for Wednesday night and would let me know if it happened but this was the only way we were going to make it Brazil in the planned timeline.  He called me Wednesday morning and said to go ahead and go to the airport.  Mark's Mom dropped me off and I headed to JFK.  Mark did find coverage and planned to meet me at JFK.  Unfortunately his flight from Richmond to JFK was canceled because of more thunderstorms.  The desk agent pointed out that he could get to San Paulo via Detroit and should make it but it would be tight.  I landed in NY and had over 5 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave.  I ate a leisurely dinner at the Shake Shake in the airport and had all kinds of time to kill before my flight left.  Mark did not have the same situation.  His seat from Richmond was one of the last rows and he had to wait for his bag that was gate checked.  He was majorly stressed.  He had less than 25 minutes to make it to his flight.  He got his bag and started hightailing it through the Detroit airport.  As he was on the escalator he actually ran into a friend of ours who lives there now.  It was crazy.  Mark explained as best he could as he ran by and our friend told him he had a place to stay that night if he needed it.  Not only was he worried about making the flight but also about what I was going to do or where I wold stay in NY if he didn't go to Brazil.  I am pretty comfortable traveling to new countries but did not really want to be in the airport waiting for him.  As I was waiting to see if he made his flight I read some reviews about the San Paulo Airport.  It did not look good.  Fortunately Mark got to his gate just in time.  The agents told him he just made it.  My flight was leaving after his and I was so relived to see he made it.  I was lucky enough to get Delta One for the flight out while Mark was in Comfort plus.  Still an upgrade for sure but I felt bad since he was the one working to make the flights possible.   We both arrived safely and lucky for me his flight arrived about 15 minutes before me so he was waiting for me at passport control.  

So we made it to Brazil but we were in the wrong city.  Brazil is huge and it is a 6-7 hour drive from San Paulo to Rio De Janeiro.  Not only were we in the wrong city we didn't have a place to stay that night and our rental car was going to be way more expensive than originally planned because we were not returning it to the same airport but you do what you gotta do.  Everyone of these trips has had some expense like that.  Its too bad we couldn't break our record with this one.  Well, except Canada.  Canada did not have any added expenses so yay Canada! 

Because we arrived a day early we needed to make a plan for that extra day.  We decided we would drive to Campinas which is an hour and a half away from San Paulo and stop by the temple.  We had talked about going to the San Paulo Temple but the Campinas temple has lodging on site and San Paulo has truly horrible traffic so we wanted to get out of there as soon as we could.  We drove to the temple, set up lodging there and then attended 2 sessions and did sealings.  It was great.  They have a cafeteria on site and a small place for breakfast at the lodging.  Mark was really happy to be in the temple with Brazilians and go through the temple work in Portuguese.  We met a group of members who were there from Brasilia which is 12 hours away.  They form a caravan and come to the temple for a week four times a year.  There is actually a temple being built in Brasilia currently which will be a great blessing for these Saints.  We were assigned different rooms in the lodging which was funny.  We each had a room with 8 bunk beds all to ourselves.  Since we had a long drive ahead of us we left around 8:00 Friday morning and dove to Petropolis an area of Mark's mission where he served for 6 months.  

The first of many stops for Pao de Queijo, or Brazilian Cheese Bread.  We didn't even make it out of the airport before we had to get some.  I love it so much.  

Our plan was to leave Rio De Janeiro Thursday the 09th (which is also Mark's birthday) and fly to Phoenix through Atlanta to meet Mark's mom with Jared and Lydia for Mark's nephew Zac's wedding.  We got to the airport with time to spare and as we were talking to the very friendly desk agent she dropped a bombshell on us.  While there were plenty of seats on this flight it was a flight with weight and balance restrictions.  Apparently most of the flights out of Rio to the states are this way.  It means that even if there are seats if the cargo is at a certain weight we will not be given seats and you won't know until they are boarding.  I had never heard of this but Mark had.  He did not know ahead of time that this flight was one of those and all the stress came oozing into him.  He jokes that stand by flying is like the machine in the movie Princess Bride that takes time off your life.  We made it to our gate and checked in with the agent.   I wanted one less serving on Brazilian Cheese bread so after we found some we settled in to wait.  I ate my bread and read my book while poor Mark stressed.   Finally our names were called and we even got Delta One seats.  Mark was so happy and relieved.  We made it to Atlanta and then onto the first flight to Phoenix.

We were so happy to see Jared and Lydia and relieved to know that they had no problems traveling with Sue, Mark's Mom.  Mark and I were in Phoenix for just over 24 hours.  By this time we were all ready to be home.  Especially Lydia, poor girl.  Lydia, Jared and I had not been home for just under 2 weeks.  They arrived in Phoenix with Sue around 10:00 on Thursday and we arrived Friday around 11:00.  We attended the sealing which was at 9:15 on Saturday and headed to the airport by 10:30 so we could make our 1:20 flight to Atlanta.  The flights were delayed out of Phoenix so the waiting game began again.  The original flight we wanted got pushed back to 3:00 and by the time you add the time difference from AZ to GA we would barely make the last flight of the day.  Luckily we did.  We tried to get on an earlier flight to Richmond that had been delayed but the gate agent had no idea what he was doing.  We were waiting with some other stand by people and none of us made the flight even though we were at the gate and there were seats left.  Mark was ticked.  To top it off once everyone was boarded we found out that we didn't have a pilot.  The assigned flight crew was not there so people were being asked to fill in.  We sat on the plane for at least 45 minutes waiting for the new pilot to arrived from Florida and then it was another 20 minutes before he had gone through all the pre flight checks.  Therefore we did not arrive in Richmond until after 2:00 in the morning.  So we got home around 3:30.  I somehow managed to stay awake and keep Mark company for the whole drive back.  He had meetings at 8:30 so he was pretty tired but we made it back in time!  Well he did.  Jared and Lydia were sleeping and I saw no need to wake them up.  They woke themselves up around 11:00 (when our ward starts) and we made it to the last 2 hours of church.  It was amazing that even if we didn't make it with our original plan we did make it there and back pretty close to when we wanted to.  This trip was most likely our last big international trip.  Mark thinks he will work through September to make sure all the exit fees are taken care of and then call it.  If there are openings I will most likely apply but even then we won't take any big trip for awhile.   It has been an unforgettable Summer!