24. May 31, 2012.
At home, at last.
When we last left our traveler, Neil was heading for the German hotel. He got there without incident and went to sleep.
In the morning, the hotel wanted €20 (US $25) for the breakfast buffet. He argued and got the guy down to €5 for some cold cereal. Then, he checked out. €60 for the room and €63 for the phone charges.
When he got back to the airport, there was the world’s longest check-in line. Unashamedly, he leaned on his cane and looked pathetic. He got moved to the front of the line. That worked pretty well; so, he pulled it again at the loading gate. Once again, he got moved to the priority line and got to use the crew elevator to board the plane before anyone else.
10 ½ hour flight to San Francisco. He went down to look for his luggage and there it was! The people in Turkey somehow got it off to Frankfurt and the people at Lufthansa found it and put it on his flight. I may have to retract a couple of disparaging airport-personnel comments.
Long line at customs – but they are too hardened to move old crippled guys to the front of the line.
For boarding to Eugene, Homeland Security made him take off his shoes. This was the first time on the whole trip for a sock inspection.
In San Francisco he had 3 gate changes and 2 delays before he was off to Oregon. The airport shuttle driver helped him trudge the luggage up his apartment stairs and he was home.
The parakeet was non-committal and unimpressed with seeing him again. Parakeets internalize too much. Everything is about them.
-Steve
PS. Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting.
My job now is to convince Neil to take up coin collecting and stop this world travel nonsense. In case that I fail, I’ll keep the Ransom Fund funds at the ready and you keep your vaccinations up to date in case we need a negotiator.
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