The Long Trip Home...

After a tearful goodbye at the Nowotny house, we left with Michael for the airport. Francisco and I arrived at the airport in plenty of time to check in, and quickly got into line to do so. The bag I checked in was of the perfect weight, so they whisked it away. Francisco put his on the scale and it was 3 kilos OVERWEIGHT! He asked how much to pay for the extra weight, and they said $150!!! So Francisco spent the next 5 minutes (to the grumblings of the other passengers waiting to check in... AND the disgruntled airline lady) taking things out and trying to make weight! I took his dress shoes, he gave 25 aprons that we were bringing back for the Oktoberfest to Michael, and a few more this and thats, and he finally made it. Drama in the morning! lol. Said more tearful goodbyes to Michael and Hariett, and got in a long line for security check. While waiting for our plane, I purchased a sandwich and my last German beer... Finally loaded the plane for our long ride home. We had a couple of funny things happen along the way... of COURSE Francisco and I were the most fun people on the flight, and we were laughing and having a good time, which immediately endeared us to one of the flight attendants. She spoke with us often about where we were from, and what we were doing in Germany. One time by, as she was getting something for us, she asked how long I had been traveling with Francisco, and when I replied "4 weeks" she just said... "Oh my!" and laughed. Later, as they were serving our lunch, the lady across the aisle from us ordered a glass of wine, and her flight attendant accidently knocked over the white wine carton, which knocked over the red wine carton, and proceeded to thoroughly SOAK this poor lady with wine! Francisco and I were having a hard time not laughing out loud. Poor lady! To pass the time (10 1/2 hours), I watched the movie Sherlock Holmes (loved it!), read a 400 page book, watched part of Francisco's movies (Alice In Wonderland, It's Complicated, and Leap Year), TRIED to sleep, but no luck (Francisco slept at least twice, lucky dog!), watched the in flight airplane screen which showed exactly where and what we were flying over, and just sat there looking out the window at the beautiful green country, or white clouds. Landed in Atlanta with no problems (thank you God! :)) and proceeded to pull up to our gate... which would not open! We started out being over 15 minutes early when we landed, and ended up sitting on the plane for close to 40 minutes while they tried to fix the door, or taxi us to another entrance or something. They finally figured it out, and we were free! We had to take a tram to go pick up our luggage, and transfer it to another location for the next flight. Then through customs... pretty easy ordeal actually! Since we had the delay, we only had to wait about 30 minutes before we loaded our on to our next plane for Phoenix. Here is a picture of Francisco and I WAITING patiently at the Atlanta airport. No problems whatsoever on this flight, and we landed 15 minutes early. Walked out, and there was David waiting to pick us up. I ran and jumped in his arms for a nice welcome home hug and kiss! When David and I were done hugging, he looked at me, and then Francisco, and said, "He does NOT get the same welcome!" lol. Picked up our luggage, dropped Francisco off at home, and then drove home. Dead dog tired... oh my. It was 3:30 a.m. Germany time when I arrived home and having no sleep (and only 4 hours on Friday night, anyway) yes, I was pooped. Alexis was there at home, with flowers, goodies, and a welcome home mom sign. I grabbed her for a couple of long hugs and pecks on the cheek. Yes, I missed my family. I handed out the gifts I had purchased for them, and we tried some German chocolates. Mmmmm. Then off to Taco Bell for a chalupa supreme and a pepsi... oh, that hit the spot! Got home, and since it was 9 p.m., hit the sack! Good night, gut nacht!