Trip to the Alamo

SAN ANTONIO–We made it.

Solar Sports TV’s broadcasting team arrived here late Monday night after surviving four time zone changes from Manila to Narita to San Francisco to Minneapolis and finally, to this historic Texas city wherein 1836, a courageous band of 189 freedom fighters defended the Alamo mission to the death against over 1,800 invading Mexican soldiers.

The trip was long, tiring, and eventful. Our team–producer Erick Tam, anchorman Chino Trinidad and myself as analyst–checked in at 6 a.m. for the Northwest 28 flight that left Manila to Narita promptly at 8 a.m. As usual, Northwest’s excellent ground staff, led by Alan Axalan, facilitated our check-in. We weren’t exactly traveling light as we brought a TV camera, books, laptops and other stuff to help us with our coverage. Bob Zozobrado of ideazplus facilitated the communications with Northwest.

At the Northwest lounge, I spotted singer Dionne Warwick. She had a two-night stand at the Star City and was on her way home to New Jersey. Dionne wore a baseball cap, a denim jacket with the NY (as in the Yankees) logo, denim slacks, and battered white sneakers. Frankly, she looked awful–her hair was garishingly grey. I missed her concert and I wondered if she wore a wig during her shows. I hesitated to ask her.

I noticed that Dionne was alone so I asked if I could sit beside her. She nodded. I asked if it was her first trip to Manila. "Oh no, I’ve been coming to Manila since the ’60s," she said. "To perform, not as a tourist. I enjoy Manila."

I probed some more. "Any difference in the reaction of the Filipino audience back in the ’60s to the reaction last weekend?" I asked. That was when she snapped. "Too early in the morning for an interview," she said. "I’m just making casual conversation," I recoiled. "It doesn’t sound like it," she countered. I told myself that’s it–end of story. I stood up, saying, "Thanks anyway for your time," and left. Shades of my Jack Nicholson encounter. I guess she didn’t sleep much the night before and woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Later, when Dionne got up to leave the lounge for her flight, she caught my eye, smiled, and waved goodbye. Maybe, it was her way to apologize for being so rude.

It was three hours from Manila to Narita. Then there was a wait of 2 1/2 hours before we boarded our flight to San Francisco. Nine hours later, we touched down. The immigration lines were long and so were the customs queues.

Erick and Chino cleared customs without a hitch. But I got hit by a random inspection. I had to load my bags on a conveyor belt for X-ray scrutiny before I was cleared. The terminal procedures took about 45 minutes in all.

We spent the night in San Francisco–a welcome break provided by Solar Sports. Then, the next morning, we were at the terminal for our 12:20 p.m. flight to San Antonio via Minneapolis. We almost didn’t make the flight. A computer glitch knocked down Northwest’s systems for about 30 minutes and check-in lines extended over 100 deep as operators were left no option but to process manually.

Luckily, I had my Northwest elite card that allowed us to check in at the preferred counter which had a much shorter queue. Northwest’s Pijush Routh accommodated us after I explained we couldn’t miss the flight because we were expected in San Antonio by the National Basketball Association (NBA) that night. Pijush must be commended for his service.

We spent another 30 minutes clearing security controls. This time, Erick got hit by a random inspection. We were starting to get used to the hassle. We really didn’t mind. We knew the safety measures were for our own good. When we got to the departure gate for our flight, more than half the passengers had already boarded. We made it in the nick of time.

The flight to Minneapolis took about three hours. Lunch was served in the plane–a choice of corned beef or turkey sandwich with tortilla chips, a drink, and an apple. We had a one-hour stop in Minneapolis before we proceeded to San Antonio on our final leg. In all, we flew 17 hours to reach here.

We were out of the San Antonio airport at about 10:30 p.m. We got into a cab and of all drivers, we were stuck with an Iranian who didn’t stop talking about compassion, love, peace, and mercy. I figured he was just warming us up for a big tip. After about 30 minutes of listening to our driver’s sermon, we were at the doorstep of the Emily Morgan Hotel in downtown San Antonio, right behind the Alamo.

We were famished. We stumbled into our rooms then went out for a 1 a.m. dinner at Denny’s. Erick had a meat dish, Chino an omelette and I devoured a barbecued hamburger sandwich.

Now that we’ve landed, the work has begun. We’re so excited about covering the NBA Finals and we’re introducing a lot of innovations in our broadcast, which is exclusively brought to you by Solar Sports.

Our thanks to the Tieng family–William, Wilson and Ronald–Peter Chanliong, Monet Silerio and Ralph Roy of Solar Sports for making this coverage possible.