The Trip Home – We Can Do This!

As in any vacation or adventure, a traveler looks forward to returning to the comforts of home, even if only to sleep in your own bed, do the laundry, and take off again for exotic parts of the world.

Us? I admit, this go around we were a bit road weary by the end. After all, we had been to several countries, and four main destinations within the past 3+ weeks and no sidewalks or roads were flat, most places we visited required hiking up hills or navigating steep spiral staircases, and pretty much all the lifts were out of order when we needed them. But that’s part of travel, right? 

So, we are at the end of our adventure, we leave Conwy, Wales today and were sad we had not planned more time in this area. We heard from the locals about many other towns nearby that would have been interesting to visit had we more time to spend. Maybe next trip to the British Isles.

Back to Manchester we go to be close to the airport for the flight out the next day. Now I’m thinking, eat light because we’re going to have a day of flying back to the U.S. and an upset tummy I do not want to deal with. Hubby on the other hand is thinking Duck, oh Duck is on the menu! So he orders Confit of Duck pizza. Really? I do have to say the hotel had a pizza oven I lust over, but the point is that Hubby chose a meal that could have gone very wrong! Lucky for him, it was good and he had no problems.

Confit of Duck Pizza

Tomato Vegetable Soup

The next morning we get on the plane headed for JFK. Well, it started out okay, the problem was we couldn’t land. JFK was having a terrific storm with thunder and lightening. The storm was so severe it closed some of the runways, and finally shut down the airport for hours, diverting many of the planes that were supposed to land to Boston. So after circling for hours hoping to land at JFK airport, we were diverted to Boston to sit out the storm and refuel. 

After a six hour delay our plane returned to JFK and finally landed! Now we find out that the airline on the last leg of our trip home had cancelled all its outbound flights due to weather. Swell.

We’re going through customs, gathering luggage and wondering what to do next. We’re in an airport we are totally unfamiliar with. We felt a little like characters in any movie about people being lost in an airport and trying to figure out what to do. We check with our next airline who is trying to deal with other passengers just like us in the same predicament – duh! When we finally get up to the window, the attendant tells us our flight WILL be leaving, checks our bags and off we go to the departure gate. But wait, the plane coming in is delayed because remember there is the storm. So we sit and wait a bit more.

In the meantime, other passengers are clapping and yelling when their delayed planes arrive – it is funny to hear the shouts of joy around the parts of the airport when a plane makes it in. 

Our plane finally shows up, we cheer, we board the plane, and we must have hit a lull in the weather because the plane was able to take off. Six hours later we land in Portland.  Time check – it’s 3:00 am the next day with time changes we’ve been traveling for well over 24 hours. 

It was a great trip, only a few mishaps – phone left at hotel in Italy but forwarded to England so okay, slightly mashed finger which mended and is only slightly sore by trip’s end, and one broken handled piece of luggage. We made it back, our house is still standing (thank you ML & MH for housesitting), and now, we’re going to sleep in our own bed!