Day 78 and HOME!

Let me start by saying it is good to be home! It is great to see the world, but it might be even better to be home.

We were up at least an hour earlier than we needed to be. Clay told me I could sleep longer, but then laid there shifting around until he quietly said he'd like to leave now instead of later. I got up and showered and shampooed and dressed. I made a cup of instant coffee in the room. It was vile, but at least I got a sugar and caffeine kick start. I am not sure what time it was but it was before 6am I am sure. We tried to go down the 2 flights of old olden stairs quietly so as not to wake anyone else, but the guy at the front desk heard us anyway. He popped out to find out what was happening and helped bring down the luggage. He even offered to help tote it over to the Tube station but I assured him we could handle it. The clip on the strap to hold 2 suitcases together on Clay's big bag broke and he had to go 2-handed. That is not our only luggage loss this trip. His new hard-side carryon bag got cracked under the bed on Marina! I knocked out the dent and duct-taped the crack from inside. We'll see if we can't get some more use out of it. On the other hand, of the 3 burgundy pieces I was carrying, the 2 larger ones are a loss. I think there is a mid-sized one left in the eave storage and I'll keep the little carryon even though it is raggedy. I'll be shopping for new luggage for my Christmas present.

We didn't have long to wait for the next train to Heathrow. I was able to get a seat but Clay wound up standing all the way. The good news is that it was only about 8 stops, so not a long ride. The other good news was that since we were so early, there weren't really any crowds. We got to Heathrow Terminal 3 and found our Area easily. It is always confusing at Heathrow with American anyway and it seems to change every time we are there, so we never get it right. We did finally clear security twice and get our bags checked and our boarding passes without any real incidents. Clay wound up getting another special search. Still it didn't really slow us down and we had a lot of time to kill. We had breakfast at Rhubarb past security screening. We sat between Tiffany's and Harrod's to wait for our gate number to be posted. At Heathrow, once they post that and you get to your gate, you are usually held without any services like restrooms until you have boarded the plane and of course then you still can't actually go for a while! So, the good news is that you don't have a lot longer to wait, but the bad news is that the wait seems longer.

Our AA direct flight home was booked for us as part of the final Oceania cruise package with us paying a deviation fee to fly a day after the cruise ended and on this flight. We had requested the economy plus seats but didn't get them. At first we didn't understand, but later realized there were none on this particular plane. We still didn't really understand that until we boarded. This was a much larger and newer plane than we have been on for this route before. AA offered us business class upgrades on check in online yesterday at $600 each. Since we had paid Oceania the air credit plus $175 each for the deviation and they had paid $687 or so for the 2 of us that seemed excessive so I said no. It was the right call. The business class bed pods would not have been a good value for a daytime flight. Also, our seats 23 J and H were not that bad. They were roomy enough to me, not as I last remembered the AA economy seats. These had individual entertainment systems and they worked. We each watched several movies and Clay watched all the TV shows I think. It was fine. If we had been in the center section of 5 across, we would have felt differently I am sure. AA offered drinks about 4 times and gave a full can of soda each time. They served a meal of either chicken or pasta that was good. Later they served another lighter meal of tomato pesto wraps and coconut sponge cake. It was good too. We arrived in RDU on time. Things kind of fell apart then. There was a huge line at immigration even though they were well manned and it was only our international flight. Still for whatever reason we were in line a long time. Then they realized that people waiting to make 2 connecting flights were going to miss their connections and pulled them all out and they went to the front of the line as we were only 4 people from being called up. Next we got pulled out for an agricultural check since we declared we were importing tulip bulbs from Amsterdam. This is at least the 3rd time we've brought bulbs home as a souvenir from Amsterdam. We always very carefully buy the ones with the US certification and we have never been flagged before. Today we wound up behind about 20 people from India with suitcases full of lose rice, spices, herbs, bananas, apples, mangos. WTH!? This was a flight from London, not Calcutta! Had they packed this stuff all the way from India, or did they leave London packed like that? I have no idea. I have never seen anything like it before. When the guy finally got to us, he was like how did you 2 get here? We told him we had Dutch tulip bulbs that were certified for import. He believed us but said he had to x-ray everything and see the bulbs. Let's go! He told us we did everything right and apologized for the inconvenience. A half hour later than expected, a woman unlocked the door and released us to Ground Transportation. We walked right out and got in a taxi and $35 or so later we were in our house. Everything looked fine. The grass had been mowed so that was nice. We had a pile of mail to go through and the TV didn't want to work right away. I think Clay got that sorted out before he fell off a chair changing a lightbulb and hit his head. I was already for bed when the whole house shuddered under my feet. I went walking around looking before finding him on the living room floor by the chair. I offered to take him to the emergency room since he said he hit his head and it hurt, but he declined. I don't know when he went to bed. I fell asleep before 7pm. He told me he was too old to stand on a chair anymore and I agreed. But, I really think it is because we have been traveling too much though. We both feel like we are still on a moving ship and I think until that passes we just both need to be careful about balance. This morning he is fine. I don't even think he has a bruise on him. He is on his treadmill this morning. He told me he gained 14 pounds during the 78 days we were away. I got on the scale and it told me I had gained 7 pounds. But, we knew that. Clay did not weigh himself while we were away, but I did. I gained 8 pounds between May 6th when we left home and May 7th when we boarded Marina in NYC! I managed to lose 1 of those pounds while we were gone, but the real question still remains of how in the heck did I gain 8 pounds in one 24 hour period traveling from Raleigh to NYC?

We are here at home until August 1, then we fly back to Montreal for a 10 day cruise through the Great Lakes to Chicago on St. Laurent. You won't believe it but I am looking forward to it. I have wanted to do this itinerary for a long time. We had travel documents in the mail for this cruise as well as tour documents for the land portion of our fall in Europe. Fingers crossed that Amras Cruises gets their business together and we don't fly over to Europe for nothing but this, especially since we have paid them a whole lot of money.