Tuesday, February 02, 2016
Hello!
I always like to wrap up a blog and let everyone know we
arrived home safely. The problem this
time is that we arrived home just before midnight on Sunday the 31st,
and by 3 pm on Monday, I had a good old case of the flu. And, the combination of flu and jet lag has
been a real jolt!
So, back to the trip.
We were up about 6 am on Sunday morning, and down for breakfast at 7
am. Fortunately, the hotel’s internet
was working, so I was able to post our last day/night in Europe. Then around the corner to the RERB, and out
to Charles de Gaulle, arriving by 8:45 am.
It was just starting to rain as we walked to the RER station at Luxembourg,
but it really picked up steam as we headed out.
There was no line at all in check-in or customs, and very quickly we
found ourselves at our gate in Terminal 1.
They have refitted the United concourse with lots of wonderful things –
like actual connectors for electronics at every seat! Very neat!
The plane came in early, and we actually also left about
half an hour early. The flight was
scheduled to take a little over 9 hours, but fortunately came in about an hour
early. Amazingly, the flight was, if
anything, only half full, so I was able to find three nice seats across for
myself. The problem was that I wasn’t at
all tired, so of course, didn’t get any sleep.
The arrival in Dulles was fine, and we again got through
immigration and customs and back into the re-inspection line very quickly. Once we were out of all that, we actually
found REAL hot dogs at Dulles Airport!
(I used to spend a lot of time in Dulles, and always hated their food
choices! But now they do real all-beef
hotdogs and very good French fries!) On
to the flight several hours later, and almost every single seat was taken.
The flight was awful.
So many people herded together, and for some reason, there were no
windows we could even see out! The five
hour flight was interminable, but it was really a jolt touching down, as I had
no idea we were so close to the ground. Didn’t
like that at all. Off the airplane, and
R went for our luggage, I went to pick up the car.
For some reason, I am physically unable to find the Phoenix
Airport from the car rental facility.
This is my second late evening run where this has happened, but I did
find it eventually, and R was there with the luggage.
The drive home was very scary, as a weather front was moving
in, bringing a combination of rain and sand.
I had been worried that I might have been too tired to drive all the way
home, but it’s amazing what Adrenalin can do, and we made it all the way home
without stopping. (I really didn’t want
to get out of the car, as my allergies were starting to act up in a major way,
as dust has always been one of my worst.)
Arrived a few minutes before midnight, so we can actually say that R did
make it home on his birthday!
I headed to bed, not waking up until after 7:30 am, but
feeling not at all well. But sometimes
it’s difficult to differentiate between jet lag and other things! At any rate, we returned the rental car at
the Tucson Airport, and then came back to the house and I went back to
bed. When I still wasn’t really “up” by
3 pm, and feeling poorly, I decided to take my temperature … which registered
at 103. So…R insisted that we go down
the street to Urgent Care. I had no idea
there was now a real test for flu, but there is, and I’ve got it – Flu A,
whatever that means (as opposed to Flu B which I don’t have.)
R took me back home, and then went to fill the prescription
for Tamiflu, which hopefully will help cut this down. What is truly driving me crazy is that there
is SO much to do coming back from a trip.
I have been doing bits and pieces of things, and I can now report that
with R’s help, the laundry is actually done!!
(Although there is a pile full of ironing…)
So … thank you all SO much for coming with us on our
wonderful adventure! (Or, Robert’s 75th
birthday trip, as I like to call it!) We
have really loved hearing from you and enjoyed your comments! So, until the next “adventure” – which, by the
way R is changing to “expedition!” Take care, and lots and lots of love to all!
m
xxx
