Our Trip Home

On our last night at Diane's, Kimber and I packed our suitcases which is always a treat. Where did all this stuff come from? We debated wearing several layers of clothes so our bags wouldn't be overweight. Kimber kept stuffing her carry on bag until it was about to burst! I loaded my teapots (from 4 years ago) into my carry on bag, packed several others in my luggage and just crammed everything else in.

During the early morning hours before Kimber and I were to fly home, I got a bit of a stomach upset and was up and down several times visiting the loo and wondering how I was going to make it all the way home. Home, of course, being a gazillion miles away...

On the way to the airport, Diane stopped at a Sainsbury grocery store so I could buy some Imodium-AD (is this too much information? Well, there could be a whole lot more!). Whoever invented that stuff needs to be nominated for sainthood. Seriously. Sainthood.

We arrived at Heathrow in plenty of time to get checked in, go through immigration and customs and do some duty free shopping. Duty free shopping: where you are led to believe that you are saving a ton of money and start to wonder if you have purchased enough crap to drag home. Of course I bought stuff...who knows when I may need Walker's Shortbread? (Note: at the Dillons store in Manhattan last Saturday, I noticed that they have Walker's Shortbread. Yep. The EXACT same stuff I lugged home from England. Geez.)

Kimber and I sat and talked about the trip. Being the professional writer that she is, Kimber took notes so we wouldn't forget all the wonderful experiences we had.

Pretty soon it was time to board the plane and we got settled in for the trip home. By this time, I was feeling much better and we were both looking forward to relaxing for the next 8 hours or so.

As I sit here, nearly 2 weeks later, I can't think of anything unusual that happened on the flight so I guess that's good! The movies and television shows were the same so that was kind of boring. And, as you know, I didn't have any pictures to look at!

I did have a battenburg cake in my carry on. The plane was in the air about 3 minutes before we had it open and were noshing. A battenburg cake is a sponge cake that is pink and white and it is covered with almond paste - like fondant. It is wonderful. I still have 2 in my freezer.

The guy in front of Kimber didn't know that he could change the channel on the TV screen in front of him so he watched the flight path the ENTIRE TRIP. I could see between the seats that that is what he was watching. With about 15 minutes to go, his travel companion showed him how to change the channel...that guy did some major channel surfing during the rest of the flight!

When we arrived in Chicago, it was a confusing mess. We went through Immigration and Customs again. Kimber noted that no one called her "Luv" like they did in England. And, I noticed that no one said "Welcom home" like they have on previous trips. Maybe my Immigration guy was not glad to have me home. I don't know. We got our luggage claimed and dropped off - no easy task, then took off for our terminal. When we arrived there, we discovered that we had to go through security again.

Going through security is not a problem unless EVERYONE in the entire airport is waiting to go through the same security line as us AND Kimber's plane leaves in less than an hour.

While I stood in line, Kimber approached one of the airport workers who looked at her boarding pass and told her to get to the front of the line. She and I looked at each other, said "Bye" and off she went. A rather anticlimatic farewell to what had been an amazing trip together.

I got through security and wandered along to my gate. When I got there, I looked up and there was Kimber! Her flight was delayed for a couple of hours so she went to my gate to meet me. Also, she needed to use my cell phone since hers was dead and the charger was at Massi's house! Kimber called home and reported her delay. Then, I discovered my flight was delayed as well due to bad weather in and around Kansas City.

I called Luke and Curtis and was told that Wamego was having torrential rains and those rains were headed east...east towards Kansas City.

Kimber and I were finally able to have a proper good-bye. We hugged with the promise that we would see each other again soon and would, most definitely, do a trip like this again sometime.

As I was waiting on my flight, I asked a couple of guys about the Big 12 shake up. I had no idea what had happened, but before I left I knew that there was something in the works. I got an earfull!

The flight to Kansas City was perfect. I don't know who the pilot was, but it was not rough and we did not experience any bad weather at all. In fact, when we landed in Kansas City there was a beautiful rainbow. I was going to take a picture of it, but....

I got my luggage, Curtis slowed down long enough for me to throw it in and off we went, headed west. I had been gone 10 days, and I was glad to be home.

Kimber arrived home safe and sound as well.

My friend and I shared the trip of a lifetime. Not only did we reconnect and renew our friendship, but we made new friends and learned something every, single day. We celebrated diversity, acceptance, flexibility, laughter and love. It was a magnificent way to spend 10 days.