Tuesday, November 26, 2019

An Ill Fated Trip to Tequila, Mexico

Somewhere along the line I came up with the idea to go to Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico. It's where a lot of the world's tequila comes from, believe it or not. I don't remember the exact circumstances in which this plan popped into my head, but part of it was how much fun we had traversing the Bourbon Trail in rural Kentucky (part 1 & 2). I went into Kentucky not really even knowing what bourbon was, but after a really fun and informative journey I came out the other end really appreciating the drink and was a complete convert afterwards. I hoped to replicate some of that magic on this trip. It was a bit of a unique thing too because my goal is to go to every country and that takes a lot of time and resources, so I don't really ever go to the same country twice if I can avoid it. We've already visited Cancun and so, Mexico is technically checked off the list.








Don't. Look. Behind. You.


So the plan was to catch a connecting flight in Houston and be in Mexico that night.


When we landed in Houston the plane was surrounded by police cars and fire engines. Seemed like a good sign.


We taxied to the gate but they wouldn't let us off of the plane. Instead, the flight attendant announced that "local authorities are going to board and check something." Police and a police dog entered the plane and generally took up time yapping with each other and the pilots.


Nothing happens in this video and no one should watch it.


It was like a whole force of Barney Fifes were on the case.


When they finally let us off the damn plane we ran to our next flight.. but they didn't wait for us. Real lame. I asked a couple of United employees what the hold up was with our flight but they either didn't know or didn't want to tell me.

Right outside of our gate I heard a family asking what happened to their "black case". "The police took it." The family then ran to catch their flight to Brazil. There was definitely a mystery afoot here and I was annoyed that I was never able to figure out what it was. What the hell was in that bag!


We went to customer service but the best they could do was put us on a flight for the next day. We got vouchers to stay at a crappy hotel and some meal vouchers.

Since this was going to pretty much kill a lot of our day tomorrow, Lydia and I decided to push our return flight back a day as well. We just had so much that we wanted to do on this trip. Zoe and Jenna would return the same time as planned.




This was Jenna's first amazing adventure. She'd been to Canada before, but I have to assume that it was not amazing. It was amusing watching her deal with all of this chaos. I've been on enough flights that I'm not super surprised or concerned when one of them doesn't go according to plan. It definitely helps to be mentally flexible in these types of situations.




It was late enough that all the restaurants were closed, so we spent our meal vouchers on booze and french fries.


The bartender was impressed with our "missed the plane to tequila" story so he gave us some free shots of mezcal.




So we called our hotel shuttle to ask for pick up and they told us that they were full. Annoying! So we went to find the United customer service desk. And it was closed.


So we guarded the luggage while Lydia went back through security to the desk where we were helped the first time.


It closed early. Eventually Lydia was able to find someone who didn't suck. Finally they found us a hotel that actually had available rooms.


Airport.


Hilton Houston North.


I think it was worth the extra hassle to get such a nice hotel.

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