3 October 2019 - Departure

And so the adventure begins with my first Uber ride, arranged by daughter, Jill. Pretty cool watching the Uber app map showing the car approaching the house at 6:30 AM and getting the driver's name, car description, license number, and a picture. My 4.9 star driver, Mario, loads my very heavy suitcase into the trunk and off we go to JFK. His GPS says about and hour and a half drive. He seems to be a decent driver so I snooze most of the way. Two hours later I get dropped right in front of Qatar's ticket counter at Terminal 7.

A quick check in and I get my boarding pass and head to security. Almost no line (am I dreaming!) and I pile my stuff on the conveyer belt. The TSA cutie says, "Your not over 75, are you?". "Well, yes I am", I respond. "Oh, you look too young. Go to that line and you don't have to take off your shoes.", she says. Well, Honey, you just made my day! They don't even make me take all the camera gear out of my backpack! I take back all the nasty things I ever said about TSA.

Have an hour and a half to kill before boarding time. One of my favorite perks to holding an AMEX Platinum card, is lounge access at most airports. So I head to the Alaska Air lounge where my Priority Pass gets me in. There's free wifi, a decent selection of breakfast items and a place to chill out. And they have Pike Place, my favorite Starbucks coffee.

Pretty soon I'll be on my way to Doha, Qatar, where I will change planes for Kathmandu.