Day 0 - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - Departure

Back in March, our friends Betty and Dave Noone invited us to go on a Rhone river cruise with them. Unfortunately, Carmen was already committed to taking care of her mother from mid-May to mid-July while Carmen's sister Cathy was visiting our niece Surana for the birth of her first child Mia in June. Carmen suggested I invite our girls instead. Anna said she wasn't able to get away but Amy thought she could make it.

I called up our friend Ginny Barthel, a local travel agent, and signed up for the 8-day Viking cruise from Avignon to Lyon, leaving on June 22. This was the first time that any of us had planned a cruise, ocean or river.

Our friend Tony Cocozza picked me up at 8am and brought me to the Kingston bus station to catch an 8:45 bus to NY. The bus arrived at the Port Authority at 11am. I had planned to take the subway to Amy's apartment but decided to splurge on a taxi so I didn't have to schlep up and down the stairs in the subway with my suitcase. During the taxi ride I received quite a history of Haiti from its colonization by the French, the slave revolt in 1791 and the current political and economic problems!

Amy was already waiting in her apartment so we had a leisurely lunch at Bar Toto on the corner of 11th street.

We called a car service to take us to JFK, a 45 minute ride from Brooklyn. The ride there was the most hair-raising part of our journey!

We arrived at 2:45, three hours before our departure on KLM/Delta. I had signed up for the TSA pre-check but KLM is not part of the program so this didn't do me any good. Amy applied and was interviewed but didn't get her pre-check by the time we left.The security line wasn't that bad, taking about 20 minutes. As usual, it was a little confusing as to what had to be taken off and what had to go in the plastic bins. When I suggested to the TSA agent that signage would be helpful she replied: "Didn't your hear me shouting at the people before you?"!

We had a pre-flight beer near the gate. The $12 (each) draft beer was  the most I had ever paid.

We had paid for the upgrade to "Economy Plus" which was well worth it as we had bulkhead seats at the front of the coach section, providing much more legroom and no seat to recline in front of us. The dinner on KLM was actually reasonably good, a novelty for air travel these days.

A few hours of sleep were possible before landing in Amsterdam.