We’re HOME!


Well, again, plans tend to change, and as Robert says, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with us! We woke up yesterday (Sunday) morning about 6 am in Paris to a cold, wet and generally miserable Parisian day.  The forecast was for something like a low of 45 and a high of 47 and basically gray.  However, we also had an email from American Airlines telling us that, as weather was expected that could potentially affect our Monday flight, we were being offered a free flight change, if we’d like.  So … being as we were already at Charles de Gaulle Airport, we thought, why not??  And, with the help of a very nice American agent, we were able to move our itinerary one day forward to Sunday 21 January, with the result being that within an hour or so, we found ourselves packing up our things and rather than spending the day wandering in Paris, we were on our way home!  

 

Taxi-ed from the hotel to Terminal 2B, checked in and were through customs and passport in very short order.  (Probably less than 10 minutes all total, which was great!)  Headed then to our gate to wait, but fortunately there were plenty of electrical outlets for phone chargers, as well as bathrooms and places to buy water and snacks.  No problems.  On to the plane and settled in early (Thank you, Premium Economy!) … but boy, that plane was full … and beside me, I had a truly LARGE guy, who, it turns out (I think) got up twice the entire trip (which was fine) although we were at the bulkhead – but he started snoring about 20 minutes before the plane even left the ground – and there was NOTHING I could do until I could put on the videos and the headphones! SHEESH!  Oh well!!  I kept trying to see the humorous side of things, but if it had been Robert, I was SOOOOO tempted to poke him in the side and wake him up!!! 

 

Flight time was 10 hours and 45 minutes, and all in all, it was fairly smooth.  Landed in Dallas – and the only other time we had cleared customs there was when R broke his leg in France some years ago.  Then, we got through everything with great assistance, as R was in a wheel chair – this time we had to navigate ourselves! Interestingly enough, had we not had TSA Pre-check, we probably would not have made the connection, as we had basically an hour and a half to get through customs, collect and re-check our luggage, go through TSAagain, and get to our domestic gate, and we made it with 12 minutes before boarding time.  For the very long line of folks trying to again clear security after getting off the international flight, we doubt they would have made it at all.  Memo to the record, as R said: more connecting time in Dallas, for sure!

 

At any rate, it was a push, but everything arrived safely, the Global Entry worked wonderfully well and thankfully the line was short.  And again, our flight to Phoenix was basically full.  The best thing, however, is that the man in the seat in front of me to my right, actually was watching the Detroit Lions – Tampa Bay Buccaneer NFL football game on his laptop propped up in front of him – and as I was jammed into the center seat (when we made the flight change in Paris in the morning, there were basically 5 seats available – R got a window, and I got a middle…but mid-plane, so that was okay.) and I got to watch the 4th quarter right over his shoulder, and the Lions won!  Being a Detroit girl, and never ever having had anything to root for in football before, it was great, even though I do like Baker Mayfield – but wow; the Lions are still in!  Amazing! 

 

Fortunately for us (as I hadn’t had a wink of sleep at all…) the flight was only 2 hours and a couple of minutes rather than the usual 2 hours 45 minutes, and we were down on the ground in Phoenix just a little after 6 pm.  Welcome to Arizona!  The luggage* came quickly, and we whisked ourselves to the Budget Rental Car office and picked up our lovely Nissan something-or-other for the drive home.  Unfortunately, it was by now nightfall, and, surprisingly, it was raining – occasionally POURING in Arizona!  Did not make for easy driving, but it did make it easier for me to stay awake, as paying attention was absolutely mandatory and there was no shilly-shallying around on the road.  

 

We did stop at the Travel Center at Eloy for Arby’s sandwiches, as we were by this time, starving, and made it home safely about 9:45 pm.  Got everything in the house, and partially unpacked … happy to report that the Societe Roquefort made it home safely!  We did find that my best-friend, Jay, had left her wonderful homemade split pea soup, along with salad and homemade blue cheese dressing (my favorite!) and chocolate chip cookies for us as well!  We’ll actually be able to eat today!  Thank you, SO much, Jay!!!  The house is pretty much of a shambles though; will work on that today.  I made it to bed about 10:30 pm, and managed to sleep about 2½ hours before waking up … oh boy, jet lag!  So, now it’s 2:17 am and here I am, blogging away, wide awake!  R is also up after a few hours of sleep, and he is working on his computer and drinking coffee, so no telling when or even if we’ll ever be straight again!  His first chore, of course, will be to get with his doctors to figure out what’s going on.

 

So, dearest friends, thank you so much for joining us on our journey!  I am sorry it was shorter than most, but these things do happen.  I’ve just started planning for Turkey in the fall, and who knows what will happen between now and then?  So, take care, sending all love and good wishes, and please keep in touch!

Love,

m

xxx

 

*Luggage tracking is really getting good.  We had Apple AirTags in our checked bags that worked pretty well but, annoyingly, kept reporting to R’s cell phone when it wasn’t necessary.  Better was the American Airlinesweb site.  Enter your name and the number on the checked luggage bag and the system tells you where the bag is.  Pretty neat, huh?  Time to retire the AirTags? (Note from M:  No, I don’t think so!  Not sure that all airlines are as efficient tracking luggage as American…and being “doubly” safe makes sense to me, regardless of the irritation R experiences every time he is “separated” from his air tags!!)

 

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