The Seattle airport shuts down due to freak windstorms the night before. American Airlines cancels all flights for the entire day. I'm notified by a recording at 4am. The first person I speak with at the airline puts a hold on the earliest available flights out to Dallas and from there to Buenos Aires. These flights are too late to get us to Ushuaia with any buffer time, but the guy claims there is nothing else. I books us on those flights.

I consult with Sean and call the airline back. A more sympathetic person is able to find flights early the following morning. We'll miss our night in Buenos Aires, eating the cost of the hotel there (no refunds are part of the packaging deal through Expedition Trips), but get to Ushuaia the day before the trip (or so we hoped).

I spend the rest of the day, when I could be trimming my overpacked luggage or gathering more information about my destinations, in a vegetative haze reading the book I'm supposed to read on the plane (Broken Angels) and watching TV. I'm ready to go, but have to wait for December 16th, 2006.