Antarctica Trip - Day 1

My Antarctica trip starts today! I was up at 0500.  Before departing (for more than two weeks), I got my condo ready and ate some breakfast.  For bags, I had a travel backpack, a light day pack (for inflight stuff) and an old duffel bag that I planned to check to my destination.  With temps in Buenos Aires predicted to be at 90 F and below 30 F in Antarctica, it was hard to pack...  At 0545, Monte picked me up and drove me to the Dartmouth Coach station in Lebanon.  When the bus departed (0615), the seats were mostly empty.  Even at our stop in Hanover, only a few more people got on the bus.  We left the Dartmouth Campus at 0630, bound for NYC.  It was mostly an uneventful ride (except for construction).  During the ride, I read, relaxed and ate snacks the provided.  We arrived in Mid-Town Manhattan at around 1130 and I immediately walked from Grand Central Station to Penn Station.  The weather was wonderful!  Along the way, the old duffel bag arm strap broke - fortunately, I found a workaround.  At Penn (1200), I bought ticket for the LIRR and then got on a train on Track 19.  When it departed (1215), I enjoyed some nice scenery as we headed east towards Babylon.  The trip was going just fine up to this point but I suddenly got notified of fraud on one of my rental car loyalty accounts.  It turned out that someone had cleared out all of my reward points but, luckily, no credit cards were involved (thank goodness).  Despite some spotty cell phone service, I was able to resolve the issue successfully before my train ride ended.  We arrived in Jamaica at around 1235.  Inside the station, I actually managed to update a MTA MetroCard balance without difficulty (I had brought three cards to try) and even added extra money (as an experiment) for the return trip.  Next, I got on the AirTrain (1250) and took it to JFK Terminal 5.  After some misdirection inside (I went to the wrong floor), I arrived at the USO (1310).  Inside, I met a sailor on his way to his ship and talked to the volunteer lady who worked there.  For part of the afternoon, I stayed in the comfortable lounge (eating snacks, reading, recharging) while waiting for the main mode of transportation.  I'd heard that they were going to close by 1500 but the nice lady stayed for an extra 30 minutes.  After thanking her, I walked (a long way) back to the AirTrain and took it to Terminal 8.  I made my way to the airline check-in counter, got my boarding pass and then headed to the PreCheck line.  During this phase, I had only one hiccup going through the line (I'd left a partially filled water bottle in my bag) but was still inside the gate area just after 1600.  To pass the time, I walked around, exploring the entire terminal, until I had reached my 10,000 steps (done by 1645).  After that, I relaxed and read for about an hour.  Hoping to find a replacement plastic bottle (sadly, I'd only packed the one with water in it), I searched the shops in the terminal.  Most of the prices were ridiculous prices but I eventually found one for "just" $2 (1805). Boarding for my flight began at around 1920 and it didn't take long before I was onboard.  The aircraft was a Boeing 777 and the seats were VERY tight.  Still, I was quite glad  to have room for my carry-on bag after my "lost luggage" adventure last year... We took off at 2005 and headed towards South America.  There was free entertainment (movies, music) but WiFi cost $35 for the flight (or $28 for only two hours).  Needless to say, I declined this “perk”.  Instead, I watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3”.  Dinner was served about an hour after takeoff and was pretty basic (“pasta”, greens for a “salad”, a roll, crackers and brownie) but I did get a big glass of red wine.  After all the logistics in the morning, it seemed to get late pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, the cramped conditions made it hard to get settled for sleep.  Just when I was starting to wonder how I'd make it though the flight with my sanity intact, a young Argentinian sitting next to me (traveling with his family) struck up a conversation with me.  We talked about his travels the US, the college experience for US students, sports (mostly soccer), politics (both US & Argentina) and general "bucket list" items.  I think we might have talked all night but, by that point, I was finally starting to get tired and suggested we try to get some rest.  As I was dozing off at midnight, we finally crossed the coastline of the South American continent (passing over Venezuela).  Here we go!