Home Sweet Home

Home at last, Home at last, thank God Almighty I'm home at last....Oh, that was another line!!!!

Well I was up at 1:30 am NY time (6:30 MY time) and tried to go back to sleep...managed another 2 hours then decided what the heck, so got up and got my stuff together, showered and headed down to the lobby with my laptop to try to make a connection there. Still couldn't connect, so still couldn't publish the last two blogs. Finally the janitor came by and I managed to get on with the 'house' computer. Just needed to let Joe know when I was coming in.

Then I went back up and gathered my bags and came on down to check out and have coffee and a Sara Lee roll and wait for Super Shuttle that I booked prior to leaving. Around 8:30 I began to get a little nervous about them coming and so did the manager, so he called their number and I talked with them. She informed me that had I read the small print I would have seen that I was supposed to schedule pick up 24 hours prior. I told her I was not in the country and that that was why I had done all this before I left. Well they were booked solid and would not be able to pick me up...another ORBITZ faux pas that I would have to take up with them. Wouldn't recommend using Orbitz for any travel plans, as you know this was not the First problem, they still have not refunded the money for the unacceptable hotel in London AND they charge you $25 anytime they make a change.

Well I'm not through with them yet, unless of course there is some explanation in the 789 emails I have waiting that I haven't gone through yet. Anyway the hotel called "their" cab and I made it to LGA in time. I was directed to the Air Trans 'self check in' kiosk which I promptly did and went the the baggage check. She said "you are 2 pounds over"....I said, "You are kidding, you won't let 2 pounds go?"!!!! NOPE...I said "Well girl, you can just wait right there while I take 2 pounds outta dat bag!!". I asked if I could take sealed boxes of chocolate on the plane with me and she said "Yes, or you could leave them with me"...and smiled. hmmm

Well got my chocolates out and put'em in my back pack and headed off to another search and passport check and down the walkway past a bar...nope, not PAST that, I went back to the bar for what I was hoping would be a Miller Light...but instead settled for Coors light at $5.43 a bottle...are you kidding me!!! I thought I was back in the US. Well she wasn't very friendly anyway so you can imagine HER tip!!

On to the gate for the plane to Atlanta. I wasn't hard to pick out in THAT crowd! ;-) The plane finally got out about 30 minutes late and when we got to Atlanta it was raining cats and dogs!!!! So we got out of there an hour late...sitting on the runway almost all that hour. Well you can imagine when the girls came down the aisle and said "Coffe or Tea"...I said NEITHER I need a Bloody Mary (now you'd think I would have used that term "Bloody" in London).

Anyway I had the bloody mary and pretzels (Air Trans signature snack) and we were almost home. Joe had finally managed to figure out where to pick me up (only 4 Air Trans gates) and we headed to Karen's to pick up Lil Girl and have some pizza. Lil Girl wasn't sure who I was at first, but after a couple of sniffs her tail was UP and she was running circles. So we packed her up and headed for the home stretch. Girlfriend is STILL under the bed, not sure who Lil Girl and I are, but she will come around soon.

This has been ONE GREAT TRIP with only a couple of exceptions. One was going BACK to London instead of Amsterdam, and the other was lack of support from Orbitz, but as I said...I'm not through with them yet.

If you haven't gone back to look at the pictures under Venice yet you need too, they are BEAUTIFUL, and there will be a picture gallery up soon so you can view all the pics of the trip if you want and at your leisure. I will post that URL as soon as John completes the gallery.