Thereīs something about starting a vacation with a long and harrowing drive up the racetrack that is I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike. Fortunately, I had a rental car covered by American Express Platinum Protection. Also fortunately, we didnīt need the insurance, but we did use the rental.

Having little interest to stay on I-95 the whole way we left DC via New York Avenue, and Rt. 50. We stayed on route 50 over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and then took Route 301 North into Delaware. From there a brief hop on DE, Rt 299 to Rt 1 North to the Delaware Bridge and the New Jersey Turnpike.

We gave ourselves plenty of time, leaving DC at 11:30, but not flying until 11:30pm - or so I thought (more on that later). But, I figured weīd hit traffic or thereīd be an accident or something, cīmon, itīs the Jersey Turnpike, but no. A brief slowdown at Trenton, another brief slowdown at the Verrazano bridge, and yet another brief slowdown on the Belt Parkway and we were at JFK by 5pm.

Car return was very easy. I prepaid the gas at IAD for $3.47 a gallon and returned the SUV with less than a quarter tank. I think I came out about even and didnīt have to find a gas station at JFK. We headed to the AirTrain and the fun began.

You see, I got an e-mail from LAN that they were moving to Terminal 8 on February 1st. But all of the AirTrain information signs already showed LAN at Terminal 8, and it was only January 31. This led to an interesting conundrum, do I trust LAN, or the Port Authority. I flipped a mental coin and we got off at Terminal 4, which turned out to be the right decision.

LAN was already checking in folks for their 3 flights this evening (Santiago, Lima, Guyaquil) and we dutifully got in the Economy Class line behind a large number of people that seemed to be ready to send a moving truck worth of belongings back home. Those of you who have traveled to South America know what I mean. Weīre talking people checking 5, 6, 10, 15 bags.

We were pleasantly surprised when a supervisor pulled us out of line and put us in the Business Class line because "we donīt want you to wait since you only have 2 bags (total) to check". ^

We were checked in less than 5 minutes after the line switch and then cleared the TSA in another 15 minutes, leaving us in the barrens of the A gates of Terminal 4 for far too long.

To be continued....