FINALLY HOME

        This pastry was on display outside of Compass Rose and shows our world cruise routing with the pink strip.

 LAST EVENING

        We left Philadelphia on time and was last row in business class.  Another good group of F/A's but food not quite as good.

                            We had some Italian white wine.  Ok, but not chardonnay.

        We both chose the chicken entree with over cooked potatoes and veggies.  The salad was good and there was a shrimp appetizer.

         The flight was a bit bumpy but we landed early and headed to baggage claim.  While waiting for them to come up on carousel I called the Hilton airport to see where we should be to meet their shuttle.  I positioned Rebecca out there and rolled our luggage out in two stages.  I called Hilton to send the shuttle and it was there in less than 10 minutes.  It was just a 5 minute drive to the hotel and the driver was most helpful.

        Our room had been upgraded to the Executive floor.  It was 7:30 when we got to the hotel and we were both TOTALLY exhausted.  We hit the hay at 8:30.  Our alarm was set for 4:45am as our flight was at 8:36.  Rebecca said she got 4 hours of sleep before being too stuffed up to breathe.  The comforter was feathers and that stuffs her up.  I finally got a towel for her to cover with.  I was awake about all night.  Tossing and turning.  Surprisingly I don't feel that bad this morning.

   

TODAY

        We did not have tickets for our flight from PHX to DRO as we had planned to use our AA retiree free passes (which we rarely use).  But as I lie awake last night I decided to see how many miles it would take to fly.  I got up at 4:30, showered, dressed, and hit the laptop.  There were two first class seats left on the aircraft and it only cost me 30,000 miles total for us so I booked it.  Now we are seated in first class.

        We caught the 6:30 Hilton shuttle to the airport.  Our nice driver called ahead and had on of this buddies to meet the shuttle with a big cart for our luggage.  That saved the day!  He loaded our luggage and took us to the priority check in inside the terminal.  We were checked in and went through TSA check with no line there so on our way to the gate before 7am.

        Not a long walk to our gate this time.  I found Rebecca some scrambled eggs and I got a bacon, egg, cheese biscuit.  So now it is about 35 minutes until boarding time.

        We left the gate on time and taxied for takeoff.  The flight time to Durango was only 50 minutes.  

We had a really good F/A in first class.

OOPS!!!  Broke my rule again and we had bloody Mary's at 9:30.  Durango time was an hour ahead of Phoenix so was maybe 10:30.

                                               Happy Campers as we are about to be home.  

         We landed early and this time did not have to wait very long for our checked luggage to show up on the carousel.  Melissa was not there but we did not have to wait very long.  She is such a sweet heart and hate to see them leaving us.  They have began to move stuff out of their house.  They are staying in Durango area a few miles from the airport.

        We got to the house about noon and stowed luggage inside.  Not planning on unloading them right away.  I have too many house projects.  Need to get net up to protect master bedroom windows from golf balls (no broken windows so far).  Then I have to wash down our patio, uncover patio furniture and wash it.  Got to uncover the outside air conditioning unit as will need air soon.

        Rebecca dusted the bedroom as we both have dust allergies.  During the flight I made a grocery shopping list.  First thing I did was jump start the Prius as battery was dead.  Lexus was ok as I disconnected the negative battery cable.  I drove it for 15 minutes.  I'm sure the battery is still pretty low.

        I hopped in the Lexus and headed to town.  First stop was the post office to pick up our mail and restart delivery.  Next was Walmart as we needed to restock all our staples.  Third stop was Central Market for some things Walmart did not have.  Last stop was PJ's (just across the street from us) to get some filets and other things I like to get there.  They have the best meat department!  Oh, yes, I picked up a Papa Murphy's Cowboy pizza.  Pizza is traditional first night home dinner.

        We both got our carry on bags unloaded.  It is 5pm now so I need to publish this before HH and dinner.  There will be one more post to summarize our thoughts of this cruise.  May not be for a day or two however.

        Hopefully we both can sleep better tonight.  Getting use to the 8 hour time change from Europe to Durango takes a few days.  Our bodies will take a while to get adjusted.  That's why I did not like flying European trips.  I much preferred South America trips as just 1 or 2 hour change in time.