Things are very quiet in the apartment. Favorita #2 walks from the bathroom, stops and sticks her feet in my sandals and shuffles across the room with a smile. With me leaving, and the mixed feelings involved there, coupled with being with this girl 4 out of the last 6 nights, there is a definite air of sadness this morning.
I'm trying to get some things together, so that I'm not in a mad rush later. I don’t really care about packing neatly going back, so I am shoving some things in my suitcase and cleaning up a bit. At this point I am trying to get rid of nearly everything except my clothes, because I don’t want to carry them back on the plane. I ask her if she wants this or that, before I toss it. She ends up taking a new toothbrush and my vitamin C tablets. I look at my bottle of cologne and it has about 3 sprays left in it. I start to toss it, but I look at Favorita #2, and walk over and give it to her. She holds it up and smells it, then clutches it to her chest saying “ oh Aldaron”, with a sad smile. I decide the packing can wait until after she leaves.
We head to Alcazar for lunch and run into Sandman and Don. After an hour or so, Favorita #2 has to go, so I walk her out to the taxi, give her a hug and say good-bye. I will definitely see her again when I return. She thinks I'm not returning until November, and I can't wait to surprise her.
I head over to the internet place to check my email. I have to find out how the flight out looks tonight. If it looks really bad, I’ll wait until tomorrow night. I don’t want to risk being left behind late at night in Sao Paulo again.
I get an email from my boss. The DL flight looks really bad. I have to make a decision in the next hour because my TAM flight leaves at 4:00 from Santos Dumont to CGH in Sao Paulo. I decide to take a chance and leave this afternoon. It’s time that I headed back home.
Don meets me in my apartment and we head down to the taxi to meet Sandman. We are going to ride together downtown and they will drop me off at the airport, while he heads to 4X4. (He has a later flight to GRU.) I say good-bye to Don once again, and promise him I won’t be back tomorrow.
At Santos Dumont, I say good-bye to Sandman for now. I will see him later in the GRU airport, and hopefully on the same flight back to the States.
Taking off from Santos Dumont was quite an experience. I’m on the right side of the plane again and as we rise from take-off, I see Sugar Loaf below. I look down Copacobana Beach and wish that we could turn that way. The plane banks right and I get my wish.
As I look down, I strain to see all of the places that I had been in the last 2 weeks. I spot the Othon Palace Hotel and move down the street a bit. Terraco would be about there…... and around there should be Alcazar, I think to myself. I sit forward in my seat looking back as long as I can, so I can take it in as long as possible. What a beautiful little city nestled in between the rocks and the water. As we proceed down the coast, Rio is finally out of view, and I sit back in my seat with a smile. What a great way to say good-bye.
Arriving at CGH in Sao Paulo, I have to take the Airport Service bus back over to GRU. The trip is about an hour, and I almost fall asleep.
Inside GRU, I head to the ticket counter and check-in. They tell me to come back at 9:30 and they will let me know if I have a seat. Now I wait, looking for Sandman. At 9:30, I still haven’t seen him and I go back to the counter and wait for my name to be called. Finally I’m given my boarding pass. The flight was overbooked by 60, but it fell apart and I get Business Elite once again. Perfect!
Sandman finally arrives and we head for the gate. We are on the same row… I’m at one window, and he is at the other. The guy sitting next to me has this traveling thing down. He’s getting ready for a long winter’s nap it appears. He’s blowing up neck pillows, putting of the airline socks, and has his night mask ready. He tells the flight attendant that he doesn’t want dinner, and to wake him for breakfast. Good…. I don’t feel like talking tonight, and I check my movie viewer. Chicago is playing on one of the channels. After 10 minutes of that, I decide I would rather watch a 24-hour marathon of Roadhouse. I flip it and watch a movie about a guy stuck in a phone booth. After 20 minutes of that, I'm wanting the sniper to blow the fucker's head off. After dinner, it's time to try to sleep.
I drift in and out of sleep all night. I can’t really sleep because I am thinking about the last two weeks. Did that really just happen? I think about all of the friends I made and all of the women I met. I had a blast. I can’t imagine anybody else’s first trip to Rio could have been any better than what I just experienced. It’s going to take me a while to adjust back to home life.
As breakfast is served, my seatmate suddenly becomes Chatty Cathy. He’s a married guy close to 50, in Sao Paulo for business. He eventually starts to probe me about my trip to Rio. (don’t they all guys?) He asks me where I stayed, and I tell him about my apartments. He asks me if I rented it from EZ Rio Rentals, and I tell him about Riotrips. This guy seems pretty green about the whole Rio scene, and he never mentioned anything about this website or any others. In sizing the guy up, I’d say that he didn’t have a clue about the real Rio. However, once I mention Don, he pauses and then says, “ oh that’s that American guy that lives down there… he’s famous… oh, you did have a good time then.” Maybe he was confused, or maybe he was a closet monger, I don’t know. I just smiled at him and tell him to make sure the next time he goes to Rio, leave the wife and kids at home.
Arriving in my hometown, it’s time to say good-bye to Sandman. I walk through the airport and wait for a shuttle bus back to my car. I had left my car in off-airport parking where we get a corporate discount. It seemed like a good idea when I was only staying 6 days. It’s a nice morning, and as I wait, I notice the moon and take a picture. The last time I saw the moon was when I was standing out by the pool at the VIPs on July 4th.
Back in my car, it feels a little funny to actually drive again. My parking fee ends up being $58. Not bad for 2 weeks. Since it is only 7:30, I toy with the idea of heading into work, but I can’t take that today. I need a buffer day, so I head home.