Friday, October 20, 2006
After having Shirley Sholtis meet me at my home so that we could ride together, we left for Pittsburgh International Airport. As we arrived at our gate, the plane was already boarding. We got on the commuter-type plane and then sat for about 15 minutes, as Houston did not have us on the flight plan or something. While sitting, Shirley and I were going over the schedule that Sister Laurinda had in place for us while in Urraco.

While flying to Houston, we realized that it was going to be a very short layover and that we really had to hustle to make it to the gate for our next flight. As the plane was landing, I met a girl named Angela who is from Monroeville. She works as an Assistant Manager for S&T Bank in Penn Hills. Angela was on her way to meet her boyfriend who is in the Army and learning how to fly helicopters. She is just staying for a week while he is there for a 7-week training program.

We finally made it off the plane and found the tram that would take us to Concourse E where our flight to Houston would depart. We were really cutting it close. Shirley and I were the last two to get to the gate and that is when the bottom fell out of our plans. The gate person examined our passports like everyone else had and found that Shirley's Passport was due to expire in December and would not let her proceed onto the plane.

The gentleman at the gate gave me about a 1-minute notice to either enter the ramp to board, or I wasn't going. It was upsetting but I left Shirley in Houston and boarded the plane for San Pedro Sula. You know how you hear that when people get bumped off or missed an important flight only to find out later that the plane went down? That's exactly how I was feeling, my plane would crash and then Shirley would know that it just wasn't her time.... Kinda funny to think it now that I'm safely on land.

As I arrived in San Pedro Sula, I had thoughts of Sister not making it to meet me at the airport, especially after Shirley and I discovered that she had it listed on our itinerary that we were to arrive at 9:00 a.m. or something like that. So my mind was racing with "What'll I do! I can't speak Spanish, I forgot the name of the hotel we're staying the first night..." and more importantly, I wasn't sure that my luggage made the flight with me to San Pedro!

I went through the first part of Customs with no problems, then stood at the baggage claim for almost a half hour. No bags!! Finally there she was... Sister Laurinda! You know that this lady is important when she walks right past the armed guards through a gate to meet me over by the baggage carousel. I was very happy to see her and I explained what had happened with Shirley in Houston.