It’s never felt so good to be home in Texas.
We took an early detour on our way to the airport on Tuesday. We left the apartment for the last time at 11 a.m. and went to the Escadaria Selarón, a colorful set of steps in downtown Rio. Originally, I thought it was just a few steps that someone decided to decorate. I was wrong … again. It’s actually an entire staircase that seems to just keep on going.
But size aside, the steps are incredible. All of the tiles adorning the steps are completely random — there’s a “Don’t mess with Texas tile”, a Georgia tile and a Texas Tech title to name a few — but together create a really cool piece of art. It really takes some time to examine everything the steps and tiles have to offer.
We left the stairs around 2:30 p.m. and arrived at the airport around 3:30 p.m., and it was a good thing we got there that early. It took us 30 minutes to drop off our bags and then we had to wait in one line for security to wait in another line to wait in another line. By the time we got to our gate, it was 6:30 p.m. Not bad for a 9:35 flight out to Miami.
The flight to Miami was uneventful. Thankfully this time I down loaded a number of podcasts ahead of time so I wasn’t listening to “Scheherazade” a million times like the flight down. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really able to fall asleep, which was frustrating.
We landed in Miami at 5 a.m. and had no issue getting through custom and sending our baggage (which thankfully made it to U.S.) on to our connecting flight. That connecting flight was also uneventful, although I did manage to get in two 40-minute naps which was a surprise. We landed at DFW Airport at 10:30 a.m., completing three-and-a-half weeks of hard work and total fun.
This was an absolutely amazing experience and it couldn’t have happened without the help of R.B. Brenner, the director of the School of Journalism, Rosenthal Alves, whose connections in Rio helped us get there, and Kevin Robbins, who was with us every step of the way. I’m truly honored to have been chose to go on this incredible journey.
Now to finally get some rest.
Miles walked Tuesday: 4.08
Miles walked today: 2.02
Total miles walked: 153.83
