January 15, 2011

"Adios Barcelona"....."oui oui Paris"......"y'all come on through here Atlanta"......"hello misty Seattle"......

What a day! A full 25 hours from the time we hopped on the bus in Barcelona till we got off the bus at our hotel room in Seattle with a lot of flights and a couple of 'close call' adventures in between.

Our first flight was just 2 hours long from Barcelona to Paris via Air France where they served a very 'interesting' snack. It was a smoked salmon 1/2 sandwich with the crusts cut off along with complimentary wine.

The 'adventure of the day' prize has to go to the airport in Paris where we had only 1 1/2 hours to deplane and get to our next gate. Thankfully wheelchairs had been ordered for mom and Kay and the downside to that is that they're the last ones off the plane but the upside is that there are attendants who know where they're going that the rest of us could follow.....but not everything goes according to plan!

Kay, her attendant, Liz, Ken, Pat, and Joyce had gone on ahead as mom's attendant got tied up at the plane for a few minutes longer. Mom, her attendant, Karen, Lynda, and I followed as soon as he was able. Our flight had landed in Teminal 2B and we needed to get to Terminal 2E but directional signs seemed to be non existent. Once our 1/2 of the group arrived outside to catch the little shuttle that had been ordered to take mom in her chair.....we spotted Ken, Pat, and Joyce standing a short distance away. They said that the attendant who had been with Kay had told them to wait there (as Kay's shuttle could only accomodate Kay, Liz, and Kay's attendant) but our attendant said that there would be no shuttle or bus that would take them to Terminal 2E from that location. Thank heavens our attendant was there and had excellent english so was able to tell them clearly what they needed to do to get to our next gate! The rest of us were able to squish into mom's shuttle and by the time we arrived at 2E; Ken, Pat, and Joyce had just gotten off their bus....what a relief! Had they done what Kay's attendant told them to do (stand there and wait) they'd still be standing there and we would all have missed our flight! As it was....we all made it just in time (thanks again to Mom's attendant who fast tracked all of us through the employees only security line). We were the last to board our Delta flight for that 10 hour leg of the day's journey. The really good news about this flight was that it was not very full so we were able to get a full row of 3 seats for Kay to sit in comfortably and with no fear of anyone bumping her broken arm and we were also able to get another full row of 3 seats for mom to lay down and sleep for most of the trip! That was even better than first class passengers got!!

By the time we arrived in Atlanta Georgia we were all showing signs of wear and not looking forward to the next flight....another Delta flight that was 5 hours long and completely full which meant there wouldn't be any extra room at all :-(

We all survived the ordeal though and were really glad to see all our cases arrive on the belt a short time later. 9 people..... 9 checked bags.....a number of flights and transfers over the past couple of weeks.....and not a bag missing....now that's a happy ending to a wonderful story :-)

Lynda and I left the rest of the group waiting for their shuttle to the Jet Motel as we climbed onto our Rodeway Inn shuttle that just happened to be coming by as we arrived....yes.....we're still suertudas!! The rest of them would be catching another shuttle in the morning to Bellingham where their ride home would be waiting. Lynda and I planned for a day of rest with her catching a 6 a.m. flight back to Mexico and me on a 10:30 plane to Kelowna on Sunday morning.

We've got all of the pictures off the camera (about 1500 of them!), have Flor packed away for the trip home, and plan to spend this free day reminiscing about the amazing time we've had this past 7 weeks and best of all that we're still great friends and open to doing it all again the next time opportunity knocks : -)

Till the next time there is another adventure to blog about.....
L & L