November 16th - Trip to Home Sweet Home!!!

The day started with an earlier than usual breakfast!!

Pretty typical spread - Churros and Chocolate and the sugar coated muffins were always a treat

We then took the 7:40 am. shuttle to the airport and went through the typical process of checking bags and getting through security.  The Madrid Airport like others has the new and old terminals.  We were in the old, but still pretty nice.  Overall process for security was clean, but two steps with another check at the entry to boarding area for Delta and again when getting on.  I guess in case you change out of your normal skin between locations. :)

The first leg of the flight from Madrid to Atlanta was 10 hours planned and only 8.5 with taxi time, so we got in to Atlanta over an hour early.  I watched 3 movies and enjoyed what was really good meals and snacks.  Janie watched a couple as well and also enjoyed the food.  She slept a little, but for the most part we stayed awake.

Arriving in Atlanta was going smoothly with getting through customs, grabbing our bags and checking them through to KC inside the customs area.  Then back through the normal screening without TSA pre-approved lines.  Just a little bit of a bummer, until on the other end neither of our carry-ons passed.  After a little panic that someone walked off with my backpack we figured out the bags had been pulled aside.  Very poor communication by the TSA agent (clueless frankly).  So Janie's was up first and of course the items she packed had liquid, so not going to go through.  I had one item due to overflow in my backpack, so same.  Either check with luggage or throw away.  Of course our bags were already checked, so that meant winging it.  We went to the customer service area and one of the ladies was kind enough to find an empty box that we put all the items with Janie's coat and taped up with fragile and crossed our fingers.  Then after dropping at the baggage check back through security and repeat.  Ugh.  So our two hour layover that was made into three was back down to 1.5 hour.

We hit the Gordon Biersch restaurant in the terminal for a couple of appetizers.  Even though quite a bit of food on the plane, when you factor in the time before and after its more like 16 hours, so a little more was needed to keep us from starving.

Not too eventful of a flight home to KC.  Our baggage made it the whole way without issue including the special package!  Our car was ready for us at Park Air Express and we made the 50 mile journey home with only one detour.  Stopped by to see the grand kids and deliver their little gifts!

It was super nice to come home to 70 degree weather after really having great weather our entire trip. However, it does feel weird to be at home with a bare refrigerator and nobody to great us along with a bottle of champagne in the room.  Back to reality and a yard full of leaves to pick up this weekend.  The forecast shows the temperature dropping, so it looks like we missed out on some fantastic KC Fall weather.  Maybe next year!

Home Sweet Home!!!

So at 10:30 p.m. central time (5:30 a.m. Madrid time) and basically 23 hours of being up we hit the sack.  The moon was extremely bright, so we had to close all the blinds to make sure we didn't wake up in the middle of the night thinking it was time to get up.  Surprising enough we both just fell asleep.  They say jet lag hits day three after being back, so we'll see!!

Thanks for following our blog and hopefully you got a little feel for Janie's 60th BD Vacation to Spain and Germany.

Jeff and Janie