The Long Day Home

The night was way too short when my alarm rang at 4:00 AM. However, after spending the last nine days in hotels and traveling about the countries of Spain and Portugal we were ready to get on board the airplane that would begin the journey home. We met in the lobby at 4:30 to load up the vans for the last time and make the fifteen minute commute to the Lisbon Airport. Since it was so close we didn’t bother tying down the suitcases on top the van, rather we put them in every available spot in the vans and held some on our laps. We unloaded at the international terminal and said goodbye to our new found friends, Missionary Gary Sones and the Wiggins family. They were driving back to Madrid this morning so they could return the rental van before noon.

Missionary Markham parked his car and came in to assist us with check in if we needed help. We roamed around the arieport until we found the appropriate counter to check in on the Luftansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany. There was an Asia soccer team lined up at the counter that seemed to be taking a lot of time. Finally another counter opened and the agent took those of us who were lined up behind the team. However, she had problems with the printer for the boarding passes and each transaction was taking 15 minutes or more. At this rate we would never get everyone checked in before take off even though we were two hours early. We were about the third in line and finally got checked in. They must have opened up more ticket agents after we went through because the progress improved and everyone was able to get checked in and to the gate prior to boarding.

We were a quiet and subdued group, probably due to the early hour and the emotional drain of the last week’s events. I just wanted to get on board and take a nap! The plane was an A320 to Frankfurt and was similar to the one we rode from Munich to Madrid coming in. I went to sleep almost before we left the runway and only woke up long enough to eat the cold cut sandwich they served for breakfast.

The Frankfurt airport is a large modern structure and a major hub for air travel through this part of the world. We had about a three hour layover there before our final leg of the journey back to San Francisco. There were a number of shops in the airport, a virtual mall for duty-free shopping and tourist souvenirs. We were sucked into a couple of shops and bought some postcards and a couple of items to prove we were in Germany. When our flight was close enough (about an hour and a half) we cleared security – a real pat down. My laptop was selected for additional screening. They did the explosives test on it. The agent was a very tall woman with the voice and manners of a man. Not too sure about their security personnel!

We boarded a United 747 scheduled for a 2:00 PM departure from Frankfurt bound for San Francisco. We flew northward over the artic and down across Canada, Washington, Oregon, and into California. I was stuck in a window seat (I prefer the aisle any day), however, I enjoyed seeing the snow, the plains of the Yukon territory, and the Canadian Rockies as we chased the sunlight. We left Lisbon at 7:00 in the morning and after about 18 hours we arrived in San Francisco at 4:30 the same day. Gotta love flying west! It is usually easier just to accept the local time and forget trying to figure how long you’ve been up or how many hours you’ve lost!

It was a pretty uneventful flight (that’s a good thing) with only minor delays on the meal service. They were having electrical problem in one of their galleys where they were warming food. The idea of having “electrical problems” 36,000 feet in the air over the ocean or the frozen artic is not a very comforting thought! Eventually, they warmed our entrees in another galley and brought them after we had eaten the salad, bread, and cup of ice cream. I wrote some and did some planning on the computer, but tried to sleep whenever possible. The blow-up neck pillow is a “must have” on these long international flights. It sure beats a crick in the neck!

The flight attendants were warned of turbulence about thirty minutes out of San Francisco. They rushed the final snack service bringing us a cold sandwich, chips, and a Mars candy bar. Strong winds were expected on the approach to San Francisco so the flight attendants were instructed to keep their seats and forego the final cabin inspection before landing. With that kind of warning we were a little apprehensive about our landing. However, it was not as bad as it sounded. There was a pretty dense cloud cover and low lying fog over the Bay Area so we couldn’t see a lot until we were nearing the airport. I got a good view of the San Mateo Bridge and just a few minutes later we were touching down on the runway that brought us back to the USA.

We cleared the passport checkpoint and waited on our baggage. When we did not get our bags for awhile it made us a bit apprehensive due to our experience of delayed luggage going over. However, pieces of our bags begin to appear eventually and we were greatly relieved when the last piece was picked up from the conveyor. When we left the Underwoods were waiting on one last garment bag. I’m not sure if it was retrieved or not as we continued on through customs and headed for the BART terminal in the international terminal. The Miraflors had also arrived on BART so we were able to ride together as far as the Eastbay where they had to transfer to a train that would take them on to the Pittsburg station. The Dublin/Pleasanton train is the one that is direct from the airport and doesn’t require a transfer. We called Marcy to arrange a meeting for our arrival in Pleasanton. She had kept our car at her place during our absence. We arrived in Pleasanton about 7:00 PM and had to have an “In N Out” burger before we headed over the Altamont and home in Stockton.

Tomorrow is class, a staff meeting, and back to work and reality. Home, sweet home!