Saturday, February 8, 2014

Ah, the day arrived.  It's time to leave.  We woke up early and were ready to go.  We even woke Javier up, unintentionally. We thought breakfast was at 6, but it was at 6:30, just the time we had to leave, but he fixed us a cup of coffee and we said our goodbyes.

Omar and Hylmar picked us up at 6:30 a.m. and loaded our suitcases into the car and off we went to the airport.  We talked and talked of the good times we had.  They drove us to the door and we went in and checked our bags.  Then we looked around and couldn't find them, so we asked one of the guards who said no one was allowed on that floor, but they would probably be up on the second floor.  They were!  We thought maybe we could go have coffee since we were pretty early but Omar told us that we should go on since we would have to go through security two times and customs once. OK, we knew to "obey Omar" in all things Salvadorean!  So we sadly hugged goodbye one last time.

And off we went through security and customs.  When we were outside the American Airlines gate, Marcia and I decided we had time for breakfast so we ate at Subway!

Then we were off to the American Airlines gate where we went through security again.  Then we sat in a crowded waiting room to board.  But thankfully we had priority boarding again.

Our plane ride to Dallas was uneventful.  We were pretty tired, so we slept.  There was a movie on we watched but I can barely remember what it was.  It was Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck about gambling.  Before we knew it we were in Dallas with supposedly plenty of time to transfer planes.  But customs at that airport was not very organized.  When you go through customs you have to pick up your luggage and then re-enter the airport, check your baggage, and go through security again.  I really don't know what they do with your luggage.  But it took at least an hour or more for the luggage to come up the carousel so we could move on through customs.  Customs was a breeze, almost casual, nothing like Chicago when Brenda and I came back from London. No fruit sniffing dogs, no interviews.  Weird.  When we got through security we hopped on one of those carts that drove us through the terminals to our gate.  That cart even gets on elevators!  Nice young man from Egypt drove us really quickly.  We tipped him and barely got on the plane in time.  Note to self: if you ever do this again, allow LOTS of time for layovers.

The flight from Dallas to Columbus was uneventful also.  I think we slept again.  We arrived at Columbus safe and sound, but my luggage didn't make it on, though Marcia's did.

I honestly don't even know who took this photo, but it's at Columbus airport when we arrived.

They promised to deliver it when it arrived, so we went outside to get on the Thrifty shuttle bus.  This driver was as cheery as could be and gave us chocolate candy to welcome us home.  The roads were clear. But it was clear there had been lots of snow while we were away.  We stopped at Panera bread for one last meal together, and then headed home.  Donna and Melissa were waiting for us so they met us at the door and we all sat in the Founders Hall west lobby and talked and talked.

When I arrived at my room there was a beautiful sign from dear Melissa.