Two Midnights

Who would have thought that you could have two midnights in one day, but I did.  We got up early Sunday morning to head to the airport in Paris and start our trip home. Like all good travelers we got there a few hours early. Jesse's flight was an hour earlier than Barbara's and mine - she flew to London to Philly to DFW. We flew straight home. Upon arriving at the airport things went downhill fast. We got in line to check our baggage and get our boarding pass - the line was ridiculously long. Then a take-charge American Airlines lady in a dandy long blue pea coat and who had rather trim ankles moved us over to another long line of people going to DFW and formed two other new lines going to Miami and one to NY. The lady sent Jesse off to British Airways. It turned out that AA was having computer problems. We stood in that line for the next three hours before getting our boarding pass and standing in line for customs and several other lines before boarding our plane, which of coarse was late.  The whole thang was quite stressful, but we had met quite a few people before getting on the plane - as one lady said, we were like family. The people watching was grand, but would have been better had we been sitting in a comfy chair.

The flight itself was nothing to write home about. Who wants to hear how we packed ourselves in to a plane like obedient sardines?  The movies were shown on very small screens very far away. So we had a glass of wine and did our best for the next ten hours. Because I had the window seat (short legs) I watched the land (when I could) as we flew. And we flew over lots of snow covered areas.  Of course I expected snow over the Way North and Canada, but as we came down into the States, there was still lots of snow through the Great Lakes and down into the Midwest. I'm sorry for you folks.

We landed in DFW about 10:30 PM Paris time. We spent the next hour and a half in lines again going through customs and such. It was interesting as other people from other planes joined us. Many had come from warmer climates and were dressed accordingly and sporting sunburns compared to us in our sweaters and jeans. When we finally popped out at the international arrivals gate to meet Barbara's husband it was midnight in Paris.

Barbara and I hugged and went our separate ways here. I had several hours to wait on Jesse's flight. She had already been through customs in Philly and said it was equally as inefficient as DFW. By the time I picked her up and we drove two hours to WF, it was midnight in Texas. I could barely keep my eyes open. I fell into bed and slept hard until 6 AM when I had to get on the road to Duncan. For some stupid reason I had made myself an appointment with the doctor for Tuesday, but they wanted my blood on Monday morning - early. Well, let me tell you, I barely had any to give. That poor med-tech was sweating more water than I was giving blood. He had to milk my  hands for the few drops that he got. Fun.

It was sure nice to get home and get a shower after my two midnights and plane flights.  However, I feel a bit off my feed today.
This photo was taken on our last day. I thought it was appropriate.