Egypt in winter

I slept for most of the plane flight, although not a great restful sleep. Kind of in starts and fits. Had music going in the headphones, and intermittently watched some garbage on the entertainment screen. The seats were incredibyly tight, and the food was some of the worst airline food I've ever eaten. Further incompetency on Delta's part. But generally an uneventful flight.
We had an email from Rick, my brother-in-law, that someone fro AUC (American University of Cairo, where he works) would meet us, Rick is the director of the Desert Development Center at AUC, a somewhat honored and important position

http://www.aucegypt.edu/research/ddc/Pages/ddchome.asp

Rick said that Abdul Messai, the longest employed person at the DDC, would meet us at the airport, and take care of our visas and get us through customs. WOW.
He's holding a sign with AUC & Lydia's name on it, and as soon as he sees us, he takes our passports and puts in the visa stamps, takes about 3 minutes.
Then the line queues for customs, must be 100 people on it. He takes us to a line with NO PEOPLE on it, and has a few words with the Egyptian person, and we're through the line immediately. UNBELIEVABLE.
Next it's baggage pickup. Again, a bit of a zoo, but not terrible. We get 5 of 6 bags, and of course, the 6th bag, Lydia's clotes and assorted stuff, doesn't show up. Furhter incompetency, and Delta just keeps impressing. How incompetent can one airline be. Nothing we can do, Abdel fills out a missing bag form, and we head to actual customs.
Again, on a line with no people, Abdel talks to the customs guy, he DOES NOT EVEN LOOK IN OUR PASSPORTS, and we're through customs, UNBELIEVABLE once again.
We meet Rick, give our many thanks to Abdel, and we're in a mini-bus on the way to Rick and Pat's place.
And for the first time, we're exposed to Cairo traffic. You can read about it, you can hear about it, you can even see a video of it. But until you're in the middle of the Cairo ring road, you have NO IDEA what Cairo trafic is like,
I googled Cairo traffic, and the first page to come up is a BBC article about taking a taxi in Cairo:
"The struggle with overcrowded roads is complicated by a lack of any respect for traffic lights or policemen. There is no semblance of lane discipline."
It is perhaps one of the scariest scenes I've ever encountered. Cars straddle lanes, drive WAY to fast for conditions, weave in and out, and ignore every traffic rule that ever existed. One can only hope that the driver knows what he's doing and will get us to our destination in 1 piece. And amazingly, he does. We arrive at Rick and Pat's place to begin the trip of a lifetime.

Christmas Eve & Christmas day in New Jersey and New York. Howard Johnson's in North Bergen, NJ was minimalistic and utilitarian. A place to sleep while trying to do everything else during the days. Arrived Friday morning, 12/24 at around 2 AM, tired but happy to be on the road. Got a great deal on the room using our Discover rewards and Travelocity. (Used Discover rewards for the car rental also).
Got up Friday morning (Alex stayed up and explored early morning-what can you possibly explore in North Bergen, NJ). Alex and Lydia made the continental breakfast, but I slept in. Breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, WAY better than continental anytime.
Cruised into the city - been a long time since I've been there.
New York will always be New York, but since 9/11, everyting really has changed. We drove down to "Ground Zero" (just an awful name, I'm sorry), parked for a few min while Lydia went and looked around. Decided there was nothing she could really see without parking and paying, so we moved on uptown, thru the village, and up to 30 Rock. Missed the tree, but hundreds (thousands?) of people milling around, and finally reached my brother's place.

Great visit with Bill and his family, since only 8 weeks ago he was given a 50/50 chance of survival during a hospital stay. Turns out he had a cellulitis infection which spread to his blood, causing his kidneys to shut down and other fun stuff. Once he got the right antibiotics and correct regimen of medicines, he made an amazing recovery, so now all is well. Had dinner at his apartment with his wife, Marionn, and stepdaughter Dori, and headed back to the motel for a night's sleep.

Saturday (Merry Xmas) was breakfast at the Tick Tock diner, in Clifton, NJ, in honor of my mom, who passed in 2004. Her favorite restaurant. Then a bit of trekking in NYC, while Alex explored Central Park on his own for a bit.
Finally headed to Felice's for Xmas day (Bill's ex wife) with more family, Saw my newest great niece for the first time, and had a great time with other great nieces as well as my nephews Shawn & Corey, Dennis, (Felice's husband) and the rest of the group.

Finally, 5:30 PM EST, off to JFK and the trip of a lifetime. Hit the airport right on time, about 7 PM, dropped the car, schlepped to the terminal, and now the fun begins.
Got on line at the Delta counter for check-in. Tried to check in at the kiosk, went thru the whole process, and at the end, get a message that says "Sorry, can't check in here, need to go to the counter". Why? No idea, but I had left Alex & Lydia on line, so we didn't lose our place. The check-in counter was pretty much a zoo. Maybe 2 people doing check-in for boarding passes and bags, and probably 4 people doing check-in if you have your boarding pass and just need to check in bags. Absolute instanity.
Two couple in the line were having fits, because they had just missed their international flights due to Delta's incompetency, moving the folks from one line to another over and over. I surely thought there was going to be some physical contact. I complained loud enough that they finally asked one of the people doing check-in for just bags to take care of us. Further incompetency. She asks for our address and zip code, but the computer won't accept our zip code. She gets a supervisor to fix it, then tries to print out the baggage tags. No can do, furhter incompetency. Finally a supervisor shows her what to do. She prints out 5 baggage tags for 6 bags, and can't figure out how to print the 6th. Furhter incompetency. She gets a supervisor to fix it, and FINALLY, we head to the gate. Plane starts boarding about 15 minutes late, not bad, scheduled to take off at 10:35 PM EST. I ALWAYS wait to be the last person to board, so I don't have to stand on yet another line, and just as I'm about to board, STOP.
THERE IS A SECURITY ISSUE. EVERYONE IN THE BOARDING AREA WILL HAVE TO GO BACK THRU TSA SECURITY. Why, I ask? Can't tell you I'm told. THE PLANE WILL HAVE TO BE EMPTIED, AND EVERYONE ON BOARD WILL HAVE TO GO THRU TSA SECURITY AGAIN AS WELL.
There is no arguing with these people, they're like cops, They have way too much power for their level of intelligence, so you have to do what they tell you. Plane is emptied, and everyone has to be re-screened. I am first to go thru re-screening, and when I get back to the gate, I ask a young woman with a Delta ID badge what happened.
She tells me that someone "Went off, and said I'm armed". GREAT. They had to deal with this moron, then empty and search the plane to make sure there was nothing on the plane that wasn't allowed.
FURTHER INCOMPETENCY.

Finally, plane departs a bit after midnight, almost 2 hours late. We're off to an auspicious start. Where can it go from here?