Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Homeward Bound!!
We did not have breakfast this morning because it was just
too expensive at the hotel, we didn’t have time and we figured we’d have some
at the airport. So we checked out,
figured out that we really didn’t owe money for a hotel room after all, and
loaded up our two six-seater taxis the hotel had ordered for us. It took Linda and Sue a little extra time to
figure out the way to pay for Linda’s extra suitcase online but they got it
done and off we went.
It took about 15
minutes to get to the airport but we may it to Terminal Four just fine. We had to negotiate lines of luggage drop-off and so forth. I had to unpack my big suitcase and repack it
into a smaller duffel bag and the big suitcase.
Turns out that if your luggage weighs more than 32 kilograms that they
just plain won’t take it onboard no matter how much extra money you
pay!!!! Good thing I left that little
duffel bag in there!! I was supposed to
pay lots of money for that extra suitcase, but when I turned it in, the man
just said go on. I asked how much money
I owed and he said none. Then he said
“Life goes on.” And I said thanks a bunch.
On I went!! Wasn’t that nice???
I found some of the others and we started
through security. We couldn’t find Paula but figured she was up ahead of us
somewhere. Turns out she was behind us. Sue and I had an easy time
going through security but some of the others had a very tough time. Paula got searched and Linda’s luggage took a
really long time to get checked. But it
all worked out okay in the end. We all
found each other, did some shopping, bought some sandwiches for lunch (I didn’t
like mine so threw it away.) and settled down to wait to load onto the
plane.
It was a LONG walk to the
airplane on a downward sloping walkway but we finally got on the plane. We all agree that paying some extra for Comfort
Economy is worth the money to have more space.
Of course, we’d like to have Business Class or First Class, whatever
it’s called, but this is still much better than the back of the plane where it
is even more crowded. We were served a
lunch (if you can call it that) not long after takeoff but I just can’t get to
liking airplane food. I watched the
movie The Lone Ranger and really enjoyed it. I later watched Star Trek: Into
Darkness in the background as I typed the journal.
It was fairly bumpy on several occasions but it was not too bad. I ended up doing some reading and upon
Paula’s recommendation, I watched Crazy, Stupid Love which was pretty
good. I barely finished watching the
movie before we landed. I think our
group did quite a bit of napping, movie watching, and reading on the flight
home.
We got through customs and
security better and faster than we ever have before. Perhaps it was the fact that we were at the
new International Terminal – I don’t know for sure. We got on a shuttle for the Ground
Transportation area of the regular terminals and it was a LONG ride over to
it. It is a good system and we ended up
on benches watching lots of the Groom shuttles picking up people and taking
them to lots of cities. That must be a
booming business. We had to wait at least
two hours for our shuttle and during that time the weather went from wonderful
and brisk to windy and cold.
We were
really glad to get onto the shuttle to Chattanooga
– the seven of us and one other lady.
The driver said he could have gotten one other person on the shuttle but
he doubts he could have gotten any more luggage on. The drive north was good, I think. I remember seeing the State Capitol building,
I think, but I slept most of the way. I
woke up as we pulled off the interstate into Dalton – that’s what I call a good ride
home. We split our luggage up into the
correct two cars – Sarah’s and Sue’s and bid Linda goodbye on her continued
trip to her car in Chattanooga.
It was a wonderful trip and even though it was three weeks,
it was not too long – not for me and I don’t think it was for the others
either. I may post another time if and
when I get news from the others.
No comments:
Post a Comment