A torrential downpour washed Dallas clean on the day of our departure. It wasn't the most comforting story to see on a big flight day when the television discussed the Air France flight lost in the abyss of the Atlantic Ocean. But we took comfort in the odds that a similar accident of lightning striking wouldn't happen within 48 hours of the last.

The gracious Senior Management team at STA Travel invited us to lunch at an Italian eatery for our last meal on home soil, where I sat in awe and wonder listening to these travel professionals talk about the glory of first class airport lounges and frequent flier benefits. Oh, to be knowledgeable in the best activity known to mankind. One day I aspire to be as savvy.

Throwing all our rogue papers and hardware into the bags one final time, we said goodbye to STA Travel and were bid farewell on a trip conceived, funded, and booked by those who were waving us goodbye. And within minutes of getting to the airport we began making our lives more interesting; there were checked baggage weight challenges. We taped ourselves hanging at the gate, and it was mildly funny (a pretty disturbing) to realize that I got through airport security with Chris' boarding pass, on accident.

At one point in our lounging state, waiting for our plane to begin boarding, I received an e-mail from Head Office informing us that our gate had changed to one far along the terminal. We booked it towards the new gate, and upon getting there were informed our new gate was actually on the other side of the airport entirely. There was some sweating, sprinting, and nail biting on my end, while I believe Chris just found the changes ridiculous.

The final gate turned out to be the second one at which we were turned away. The darn schnickel-fritz who told us wrong didn’t even act like she did anything wrong.

Eh, can’t be too upset when your ending destination is Fiji.