Homeward Bound

As the saying goes, All Good Things Must Come To An End. Before we knew it, it was time to go home. The days just flew by so fast on our trip. We sure enjoyed it and I would most definately go back to Ireland again, but not anytime soon. There was so much to see that you could spend a week in Dublin alone. We just didn't have time and being on foot didn't help. I'm sure once we figured out how the public bus system worked, we could have seen more stuff. Oh well, have to leave something for another trip back.

Our tour guide had arranged for a quick bite of breakfast at the hotel before we left. The hotel restaurant didn't open until 8:00 am on the weekends. We received a piece of fruit, a scone, a hard roll and a box of orange juice. In our rooms we were able to make hot tea and coffee.

We signed up for the 6:45 am shuttle to the airport. Our flight didn't leave until 11:30 am, but all the instructions said to be at the airport three hours before your flight. By getting on the 6:45 shuttle we arrived at the airport at 7:30. Taking the one at 8:45 would have arrived at 9:30, that didn't give us much time to go through all the security and do the paperwork for customs.

It turned out to be a good thing that we got to the airport very early. It took us time to get to the Delta ticket counter and there was a line. Dublin is a huge airport and at first we had a hard time finding the ticket counters. Once we got through that security and received our customs papers we then had to go through security again. Again Mom didn't take her shoes off, of course this time she was told that she would be ok, once the lady took a look at what kind of shoes she had on. Again she was randomly chosen to be scanned. Jen and I were giving her a bad time. All you can do is laugh.

We made it through this security and then found the gate where we needed to go. We had time to get a cup of coffee and take our time filling out our paperwork. This is the stuff where you have to claim what you bought over there and you need to remember the amounts. Jen got something to eat, as she didn't eat the snack at the hotel while Mom and I had a cup of coffee.

By this time the line at the gate had grown, so we got in line. This was the line for customs and we made it through without any problems. Down the stairs we went to the passport area. We were checked with all our paperwork again before we could make it through to the boarding gate. Once we got down to the boarding gate, it was pretty crowded. We did manage to find some chairs to sit on. We had about an hour wait before we could board. We were so glad that we took that early shuttle. The people who took the later shuttle did arrive in time to board, but I bet they had to really hurry. We were glad to see them and most of the people on our tour were on our flight to Atlanta.

We got to our seats and got buckled up and ready for takeoff. Listened to the instructions very intently. Again on this flight we had individual screens to watch movies and play games. We were also served a lunch on this flight. This time I chose the chicken, I learned my lessen with the pasta. Jen and Mom told me to pick chicken too. On the way home, I watched three movies and played some games. It really wasn't that bad. Just before we landed we were shown a ten minute video on how to get through customs and what we had to do. Mom and Jen both said that they didn't get this on their earlier travels. It was nice, at least I knew what to do. We claimed our luggage without any problems, however we were a little worried as ours was the last ones off the plane. I was sure worried how my whiskey was going to make it home in one piece with the way my luggage was manhandled. Anyway we claimed our luggage and had to have it rechecked and through more security.

Several international flights had landed in Atlanta at this time, so it was pretty busy. We got in line and they moved all of us people through pretty fast. This time we made it through the final security point with no problems. Mom was not randomly selected this time. Jen and I made sure she took off her shoes this time. Atlanta is such a huge airport that our next flight to Salt Lake was in terminal B and we were in terminal S. We took the cute little train to get to the next terminal, found our gate without any problems and had about a 45 minute wait to board.

Got on board for the flight to Salt Lake, on this flight we had individual tv screens, but had to pay to watch a movie and play the games. The only complimentary game was trivia and you played against your fellow passengers. It was fun, but by this time I was getting pretty tired. We landed in Salt Lake on time and this time we had about an hour wait. As we were waiting to deplane I could hear this woman say "Hi, Patty I didn't know you were in Atlanta". She is the superintendent of Wyola and she was on her way home from teaching a class in Atlanta over the weekend. I did get to talk to her for a bit. Also one of the flight attentants lives in Shephard. Mom was wearing her Hardin shirt.

We made it to our gate to board the plane to Billings. Jen was pretty hungry by now so she got a sub sandwich, she made it back just in time to board. She was able to take her sandwich on the plane, just as I was able to take my cup of Starbuck's coffee on the plane. I paid way too much money to have to throw it away. As long as we bought our stuff within the secure area we were fine.

We landed in Billings on time. By this time we are just exhausted. Keep in mind that Dublin is 7 hours ahead of Hardin time. We had been up since 6:00 am Dublin time and we landed in Billings at 11:00 pm Hardin time. We didn't get home until after midnight, so we figured we had been up 24 hours. I was so glad that I took an extra day off from work. Gary was there to pick up up on time. He was a bit worried because there was a lightening storm in Billings, that would explain the turbulence we experienced. We claimed our luggage and I was worried that the whiskey didn't make it. There was a wet spot on my suitcase, it didn't smell like whiskey. Once we got outside it was raining. What a relief. Once I got home, I check out my whiskey and it was all in one piece. The lid from the cardboard container had popped off.

It only took me about two days to get readjusted back to my normal time. I sure enjoyed the trip, but you can keep that jet lag. All in all we sure enjoyed ourselves and had a great time. We got everything that we were supposed to get and we feel that we got extra with the historical knowledge our tour guide had. He was just a wealth of information. Jen even had a good time, even though she was the youngest person on the trip. It helped that there were two others in her age group, even though they were older.