Day 1: Houston, TX

Reporting from the President's Club lounge at Houston Intercontinental.

Current Status of Participants:

Jamie and Pat: Houston, TX

Murray: Miami, FL

Pat and I began our day with a 6am flight to Houston. We both confessed to waking up before our respective alarm clocks went off, and also that we are both working on sleep that was both of low quality and quantity.

We are in the middle of a 7 hour layover here in Houston, so we decided to buy President Club lounge day passes and enjoy complimentary food and beverage. More importantly we have comfortable seats and some space.

The picture above shows how I am occupying myself. The requisite Lonely Planet guide book and Macbook with WiFi to work on the blog. Had it not been for LP guide books, I would have missed so much of the cultural experience in Croatia back in 2003. Perhaps I will compare and contrast Croatia with Ecuador as a start on a dissertation on Comparative Culture Theory.

Flight to Quito departs around 4pm CST and we get in around 2215 EST.

Did you know: In 2000, after a monumental economic collapse, Ecuador dropped its currency (the Sucre) in favor of the US dollar.