Going Home

 Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Yep, I'm up before three, but everyone is up by four!  It's really cold out on the balcony but we can see New York and we pass under the Verrazano Bridge (I think?) and there's a full moon and we can see the Statue of Liberty.  It's still pretty dark and the ship is moving, of course, so the photo ops are limited.

Giggles and grins!

Tommy the Tugboat!  and the refueling barge

This is the same airport that had the forest in each bathroom stall!

We can have breakfast at 5:30, our last "free" meal, and we take advantage of that.  And we run into Christine!  A lovely surprise!

We are finally allowed to disembark with the first group of passengers, other than the "self-assists" and we  again meet up with Christine as we are searching for our luggage.  All present and accounted for!  We move through customs with no difficulty and go looking for out shuttle to the Newark Airport.  A quick question to one of the guys in yellow and we are directed right to our bus.

It's really a short bus ride and goes through the Lincoln Tunnel.  Christine tells me they have a Kennedy Tunnel is Canada!

We get lucky and the lady at the Delta desk is willing to let us check in and give her our luggage, even though our flight isn't for another seven or eight hours!! And my suitcase weights about forty-six and a half pounds!!  Whew!  Glad I moved some of the heavy stuff into my backpack!

Now to security with TSA pre-check.  Should be smooth buy my tray gets pulled.  Turns out they just didn't get an image and when it's put through again it's cleared.  There's a ton of time to kill - shopping, computing, eating...we'll use the time somehow!!  At any rate, I've gotten this close to finishing the blog and I'm pretty happy!  Now it's off to find Ginger and Nick for lunch.  Or not!!

Oh! Lunch is a crispy chicken sandwich and I’d quite good! But I can’t bring myself to spend $4.50 for a bottle of water!

Nick and Ginger are thinking of taking an earlier flight! I’m hesitant because of needing my connecting flight; but I give in. Getting to Atlanta should be easy but I won’t know about Tampa until I get to the gate agent in Atlanta. And we’ll see what happens to the luggage! At least it’s tagged to Tampa! Gulp! It would sure be great to get home earlier!!

So…we got on the earlier flight and it had a maintenance issue! We returned to the gate for repairs and finally took off an hour and a half late. But it’s nice to know the plane was repaired!!

In Atlanta Ginger and Nick go with me to the Delta Hello desk where a great young man made short work of putting me on standby for a 8:10 flight and thinks my bag will make it, too! I’ve been tracking its curious adventures on and off various planes as we change our plans! It has just moved to Concourse A which is where I am!!

We all ride the plane train and say goodbye in the car!!  I’m waiting to see if I make it on the plane. Nine-thirty sure beats midnight!! The other good news is that Stu has turned on the heat at home and Tiara has brought Floofen inside, out of the cold. Life is good!

Well,  that didn’t work and I’ve trudged to Concourse E for my original flight. At least I know I’ll get home tonight, unlike a couple of other people who will be standby on some other flight - or maybe even on mine!

“Find my luggage” says my bag is moving to Concourse E, so I think it might actually make it home with me! Bless that little AirTag!! It’s better than Delta’s app at tracking my bag. Right now I just want to cuddle the cats and sleep for a week.

Finally back in Tampa! Betsy’s smiling face meet me in the terminal and we were able to locate my westward suitcase with little trouble. I got to sleep in my own bed with a cat on either side of me. Travel is great! Home is better!!

See you next time!!