Travel Home

November 19, 2022

Laura was able to get reservations at Manfredi's, a specialty restaurant, for the six of us for our final meal on board. I have developed a hacking cough and hope it isn't what Glen has which kept him bedridden for a few days of our trip. Had our checked bags outside our stateroom door at 10 last night and met them at the bus at 7 this morning after a quick breakfast. After a short ride to the Barcelona airport our bags were carted to the American Airlines check in counter. Since we were in Premium Economy, we used priority check in and quickly got our boarding passes for our flight to JFK and the connecting Jet Blue flight to Orlando. There was no wait at security and the Barcelona airport looked very new and was very efficient except for the long walk to our gate. We made it in plenty of time and the seats were very comfortable with plenty of room and included a packet of amenities. Our scheduled arrival at JFK was already delayed because of headwinds and then we sat at the gate for another half an hour for the replacement of a light lens. The flight was comfortable, but we arrived at JFK late and had to wait for our checked bags to clear customs. (Can you sense panic?) Our bags were marked 'priority' and they gave us orange tickets to mark us as connecting passengers supposedly to expedite our transition. Alesa's bag came out right away but mine was at the end in spite of being marked priority. After customs there was a special belt for connecting flights so we put our bags on and headed to terminal 5 to catch our Jet Blue flight. One of the porters was very helpful and told us how to catch the shuttle to terminal 5 after clearing security. For some reason our TSA Precheck did not make it to our Jet Blue boarding passes so we got in the long line and watched the Precheck people zip through. After a painful wait to clear security we did catch the shuttle to terminal 5 and got to our gate just as our group was boarding. The flight was fine except for the guy in front of me who insisted on reclining his seat all the way back to the point of bouncing it off my knees to get it all the way back. He complained to the attendant and I said I could turn my legs into the aisle so I could fit. She moved the guy to another seat so he could annoy someone else and I had a comfortable flight across the aisle from Alesa. We landed, got our bags, took the shuttle to ParknGo and headed home. Once on the highway at about 7:30 PM, the Orlando traffic was a zoo with traffic weaving in and out at high speed. It was dark and I was above the speed limit and almost got hit by car without his lights on trying to pass me on the left. That would have been a great way to end our trip. After clearing Orlando, the traffic was heavy but sane. We got home around 9PM (3AM Barcelona time) after a long day and headed to bed. My cough and congestion did get worse as I am posting this a couple of days later. I have home tested and it is not Covid and I am feeling a little better but it will be a couple of days before I can catch up with the posting. Alesa is feeling just fine and we are catching up on our sleep. It has been an awesome trip even with the few 'problems' encountered.