Road Home

This past Tuesday was one of those days.  Well, not a bad one but one with hurdles and challenges.  Since I couldn't get everything I wanted to in my bagzillas I had to ship a few things and thankfully Puna has an employee discount with FedEx.  I put stuff in a box that I figured would be better off than in my luggage.  TSA would certainly go through my things and by shipping them it would make their jobs easier, I'm thoughtful that way, right?  We, Susan and I, met Puna, her husband at the FedEx office to ship off the box.  According to the guy behind the desk the box would be getting to London on Thursday and to me by Friday...maybe.  No problem, it's nothing I have to have when I get back right away.  It was a little less than when sending it through the US Post Office.  Back to the Raymond residents to wait for my flight.  I'm always anxious when it comes to getting to the airport.  Once there I'm through security I relax and just enjoy people watching.  I went to check my luggage and had to pay for the 1 extra bag and was told that my carry-on had to fit in 'that' the ticket agent pointed to that frame thingy.  I told her my 'backpack' is double just to carry it better.  Susan pulled my roller bag like it was her own.  Dropped off the bagzillas with TSA and went off to Security.  Snaked along the queue and had Susan watching over me from the 2nd level bridge.

Eventually I made it through Security and yes, I was 'body scanned'.....always wonder what shows up on the screen.  Put all my stuff back together and made my way to my gate.  Apparently there was problems with the plane leaving from my gate to Dallas before my scheduled flight.  At that moment I put in my mind that there was no problem or rush to get back to London as long as I do, right?  My plane came in and went to the next gate while the other plane was being worked on.  They eventually got it all fixed and both planes left for Dallas only a few minutes apart.  Oh and my roller bag was picked out as "it won't fit in the overhead" and was checked all the way through to London....at no charge!  Once in the air the flight attendants did their usual in service beverage tap dance.  We didn't get any peanuts or pretzels....just a drink.  Besides the lack of solid munchies nothing odd until we started to descend to Dallas.  The captain came on the intercom letting us know about a nasty storm parked over DFW and we'd be circling over Wichita Falls...for 30 minutes.  DFW was closed to all traffic, that means nothing is coming or going so my connection would be fine.  Then comes the diversion.  We had to make a landing at American Airlines maintenance base just minutes from DFW to wait out the storm and get fuel.  2 hours later.....We're finally getting fuel.  Most of the people sitting around me were on their phones working on getting other flights to where they needed to go.  I was thinking that I'd probably end up spending the night in the airport waiting for a flight the next day.  After we landed in DFW I checked the Departures board and saw the later London flight was delayed and I went to that gate.  I walked up saying "I was on the earlier flight"  The ticket agent said "so is everyone else".  I was happy to get a seat and was told my luggage would make it on the flight too.  So much for getting 4 seats to myself and sleeping on the flight.  I rushed out to find food, no Popeye's for me.  I found BBQ and inhaled my expensive dinner. 

I find my seat, it's not on the isle, bummer.  In my part of the cabin was Romper Room....a.k.a. Day Care.  Nice.

We eventually leave the gate...2 hours later than scheduled because of all the back log of flights.  No problem, I'm not in rush.  I just had to figure out how to get a message to Kevin about the changes.  I posted on Facebook and tried to send out emails from my iPhone with the UK SIM.  I wonder how much that'll cost me.

After an hour into the flight we get a dinner service.  The lady sitting next to me got a baby bottle of wine and I asked for one.  I was told by the fight attendant they were only free because we left late.  What ever, right?  I'm just happy to be flying east towards London and now I can relax with my little bottle of wine.

Besides a few bumpy moments and some random baby cries it was an easy flight over.  I tried to get some sleep, I may have lightly dozed off a bit but never enough to feel rested.  The woman next to me would go in and out of sleeping too.  She'd read on her iPad or find a movie then go back to sleep.  The little girl next to me didn't have any problem sleeping or swinging her arms around during her sleep.  Her Mom sort of disappeared mid flight, leaving her 2 kids to sleep alone.  Strange.

Landing was a welcomed event.  Once walking down the jetway I felt 'home' and warm.  It's been really warm here.  Getting through Passport control and getting my luggage was a breeze!  Dealing with the hired car was a few phone calls back and forth.  Finally getting out of the airport and loading up my bags into the car and getting on my way in the heat.  The driver had to deal with road work and loads of traffic problems and over an hour to get home. 

I'm home....happy to be home.