Back from my vacation

Well I'm back, and it took me three days to do it, but more on that. My
vacation was short but sweet, got a chance to see my children, friends
and family.
Always nice to get my USA fix, the land of the big box stores. The
weather was cold, but pleasant, rained mostly.

My trip there was uneventful, was hoping for the same on my return trip
but as luck would have it, my return trip earned top 3 placing of worst
trips yet!

Beginning with checking in at Norfolk, VA I did a self check in at the
kiosk and noticed only one boarding pass had printed out. As I checked
in my bag I inquired about it and was told my connecting flight must be
the next day, I thought that couldn't be right, or so I thought. Turns
out I had a 12 hour layover in Dallas and a 10 hour layover in Miami!
You read that right.

To make a long story short I'm here. My bag didn't make it so I caught
a ride to the airport and took the bus back. 350 pesos for a taxi or 24
pesos for the bus?
Wasn't sure if the bus driver would let me take my big bag on the bus,
so I just pointed at it, gave him the thumbs up and he nodded his head
yes, hand language, the universal language.

Packing for the trip

Getting ready for my trip home, catching the red eye to Miami, but
instead of a direct flight to Norfolk (ORF) or Dulles (IAD) to ORF I am
going to Dallas (DFW) and then to ORF! I had my choice of switching to
Delta in Miami and flying to Atlanta (ATL) but I wasn't comfortable with
switching carriers, that and my return flight would have cost me an
extra day. My tickets cost the company a small fortune. In fact the
head shed had to really debate whether or not to purchase the tickets,
especially since switching to Delta would have cost less, but in the end
it was approved.

I plan on grabbing a window seat, putting on my eye mask and ear plugs,
slip on my neck pillow, take a sleeping pill and hopefully wake up in
time for breakfast!

The AA seats in coach are really bad, no TV's in back of the seats, just
a couple of monitors in the aisle : (

Book Corner - Finished Reading

The Hosatge (A Presidential Agent Novel) by W.E.B Griffin
465 pages hardback

One of the better books I've read, really enjoyed this as it is about
the American embassies in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo and the
author apparently knows his way around both cities.

What a night!

Wish all of my readers could have been here! The fireworks were
spectacular as usual. The huge bottle rockets that my colleague had
purchased were something else! They really hurt my ears when they
launched, that loud! They went up several hundred yards in the sky and
exploded just as in anything you would see at a fireworks show. Thank
goodness no duds! I could have only imagined what that would have been
like. Some of the other fireworks were partial duds, as they weer
supposed to shoot out of a multiple luncher, key word shoot, instead
some just kind of plopped out and exploded, but nothing to loud.

The band was great and played lots of classic rock tunes. My ears were
ringing when I got home.