Rather than just leave you hanging back in México, I wanted you to accompany me through my last 24 hours in Morelia and the trip back home.
In case you missed one, here are the previous post about my Morelia trip:
Morelia—Week 4 Morelia—Week 3 Morelia—Week 2 Morelia—Week 1
Last Sunday afternoon the realization hit me that I was actually scheduled to leave Morelia on Tuesday, and anything that I hadn't seen or done on this trip would have to move to the top of the agenda!
Update on Garbage Collector
On Monday, the garbage collector pulled his truck up in front of the building, and I was able to get a good photo of the sorting process. As you can see, he sorts materials as he collects, separating glass from plastic, flattening cardboard, and putting everything into its own bin. The space over the truck's cab appears to hold metal or items that might be sold as scrap.
These guys (I never saw a woman working on a garbage truck) work so hard, and I'm so grateful for how wonderfully this process works!
Sushi
I had walked past a nearby sushi restaurant several times but never eaten there, either because it was closed or I wasn't hungry. On Sunday evening, the stars aligned and I enjoyed a great meal at Kawa Sushi.
The menu posed a bit of trouble: I know many items at a sushi bar by their Japanese names, but the Mexican names were totally foreign to me. Fortunately, everyone I've encountered has been very understanding when I ask questions about a menu item, and soon my order had been placed.
I ordered a shrimp tempura roll, but they also brought me an appetizer, on the house: a sliced pepper filled with cream cheese, avocado, and topped with a slice of bacon run under the broiler, and then finished with a variety of sauces. What a nice surprise—and it was delicious! The shrimp tempura roll was similarly tasty, but I was still a little hungry, so ordered another plate.
The elaborate roll that emerged from the kitchen was artfully prepared, with its slender bridges of avocado spanning the pieces. The whole thing was drizzled with eel sauce, and this, too, was absolutely delicious
The total for my splurge was just a little over ten dollars!
Heading Home
Regretfully, my time in Morelia had drawn to a close, and I made my way to General Francisco Mujica International Airport to start the homeward journey; first with a flight to Dallas, and later a connection to Pittsburgh.
Morelia's airport is small, with just four boarding gates, but that means it's easy to navigate. The drive to the airport (located northeast of the city) is about 30 minutes. And it truly is an international airport: there are daily flights to and from Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago, as well as domestic flights to Tijuana, Mexico City, and Cancún.
Fortunately, our flight boarded quickly and departed on time—and then the messages started to ping!
Click to embiggen
At the scheduled time of boarding (5:50 pm) for my flight from Dallas to Pittsburgh, the gate agent made an announcement that a small maintenance issue required a 15-minute delay. After that delay, the delays kept coming, every 20–30 minutes. Finally, at about 7:30 pm, the boarding process started—it took a while, because the flight was completely full.
Then more delays.
The maintenance issue had been resolved, but we needed to wait for the person to sign off on the repair in the logbook. Then we needed to wait while that file was uploaded to American's maintenance facility in Tulsa, but the technician couldn't get a good WiFi signal to upload the large file, so he had to go back into the terminal in search of a stronger signal. (To quote Dave Barry, "I am not making this up.")
After more waiting—with no updates from American—the flight crew came on to announce that the delay had placed them over their legally-permitted work day, and that they needed to leave the flight. So we then sat for another 40 minutes while they tried to find an available flight crew. At 11:20 pm, after sitting on the plane at the gate for nearly three hours, we departed for Pittsburgh.
Unfortunately, our new arrival time was 2:00 am, and Pittsburgh International Airport is pretty much shut down at that time. There were no buses and shuttles operating from the airport, and there seemed to be no Uber or Lyft drivers in the area. Because I was tired and hangry (oh, so hangry!) I used the World of Hyatt app to make a reservation at the Airport Hyatt—at least I would have a nice bed to sleep in!
We arrived at the nearly-closed terminal, and because I had checked a bag I went to the baggage claim level. There, to my surprise and delight, was a 24-hour 7-Eleven, stocked with sandwiches, wraps, snacks, drinks, pizza, hot dogs...it was like an oasis in the desert. I had no idea it was there (but learned it was two years old!)
Armed with snacks, I checked into my comfy hotel bed and went to sleep. But since I am an early riser, I woke at 7:00 am and was not able to go back to sleep, so I decided to head home. I was too tired to deal with the two buses needed to get home, so just splurged on an Uber ride that was quick and comfortable.
How nice to be back home again!
Welcome Home!
Well, hold on a minute.
This is what greeted me when I got in.
On Sunday evening, a very powerful storm hit Pittsburgh, and many trees in my neighborhood came down. Included in that number was the one that crashed onto my windshield, smashing the glass, shearing off both side mirrors, and compressing the roof pillar enough that the passenger door can't open. My neighbors said the crash was incredibly loud.
Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the apartment building suffered no damage. My insurance company [insert plug for Erie Insurance here!] was very responsive, and AAA arrived immediately to tow the car to a local body shop. But the body shop owner said he had a million cars on his lot, all casualties of Sunday's storm, so I'm expecting to need to be patient while the repairs are done.
This will give me time to focus on everything I need to do to be prepared to move to Morelia in August. My short time there absolutely convinced me that it will make a comfortable and enthralling home for me, and I hope a great spot for you to visit!
Thanks for following my journey through this blog—I've really enjoyed your comments and feedback. It has been one of the most exciting times of my life, and I'm so glad that I got to share some of it with you.