We got in the car (Atlas Towncar in Seattle, highly recommended we have used them for 20 year) at about 0520 and headed to Seatac (SEA) which was swamped, very crowded. Fortunately there is a Microsoft employee kiosk, so we were checked in really fast.

Interestingly, we couldn’t check in on the phone because there is a lot of air ticket fraud into S. and Central Africa, so you have to show the credit card used to purchase the ticket to the agent to actually check in. We also had to show our negative covid tests (PCR tests done the day before) and our passports.

From there to the TSA pre-check line, which was VERY long, but moved pretty well, and then into the airport and the Delta lounge to download videos and get a coffee – this basically took all the time up until boarding.

We boarded for Atlanta (ATL), and had a pretty uneventful 4 hour flight. THe only issue I hit – and honestly, felt goofy about – is that because of the strict size/weight limits for luggage on the bush planes in Africa, and because of a LOT of camera gear in my bag, I was well outside of my normal routine and didn’t have a breakout bag for my “at my seat” stuff in the aircraft. So I looked and acted like a noob (dressed up as a tourist) which I wasn’t wild about. More on the gear later.

Mask compliance in SEA and on the way to ATL was really good. There was more mask below the nose, mask on the chin crap there (honestly, folks, it has been two years, you know what to do . . .) but my ongoing N95 obsession boosted my confidence (I have now had this mask on for 24 hours . . . about 2 hours until I can take it off).

Heather had heard of a good restaurant called “One Flew South” – not just a good airport restaurant, but a good restaurant – so we stopped in there. Cecilia was our server and was AWESOME. Great, fun, dialed in service. We had poke tacos, cauliflower soup, shishito peppers and salad and everything was really good. Their cocktails were super good – Heather had their tequila spicy thing and I had their old fashioned (not as good as Dustin’s barrel aged old fashioneds, but good).

Sated we camped in the Delta lounge briefly then headed to our flight. I am writing this from the tail end of the flight from ATL to Johannesburg (JNB). This used to be the 9th longest flight in the world – now higher since many of the big routes (Like Singapore-New York) aren’t running now. We got to chat with the pilot, who was super cool and obviously knew he was at the top of his game.

Delta’s customer service game has been on point – they took the picture from the previous post, had a handwritten thank you note for us, and just generally are hitting the right notes. Delta is doing a good job of being polite but firm in enforcing mask compliance on the flights. It isn’t convenient, but it seems a fair trade for getting to adventure in uncertain times.

We have a health form we have to fill out for S Africa for contact tracing, and apparently they will do a “real time” test on us when we land – that’s new, wasn’t in the processes even two days ago. So this is a very dynamic time – the risks for the trip are less about getting covid, I think, and more about late breaking rule changes.

But we’ll roll with it, and make the best of it – that’s what adventure is all about, right?