Italy: The Trip Home

Well for the last two days, Cheryl and I have been recovering from our trip home from Italy.  Needless to say the flight home did not disappoint us as we have come to expect unforeseen events in our travels.  Now don't get confused, we don't like the events necessarily but after our last couple of adventures well we have come to expect trouble.

Our flight from Rome departed at noon on Thursday, May 26th.  So once we had elbowed and fought our way onto the plane we were able to settle down and relax for the long flight to New York.  Some 9 hours later we arrived at JFK International Airport and had a 2 1/2 hour lay over.  Okay so far so good. 

Well at JFK we had to claim our luggage and go through customs and then recheck our luggage.  Approximately, 30-45 mins ordeal.  Still left plenty of time to move to terminal three go through security and grab a bite to eat before proceeding to our final leg of the journey.  The Security Checkpoint took another 45 minutes but we survived the ordeal again and grabbed a bit to eat and then proceeded to the gate with only 15 minutes to spare before boarding. 

Wrong!  First, the plane was late by half an hour.  Okay, we can accept half hour late and it was time to board.  Text Taylor and let him know that the plane is delayed a bit but we should still arrive around 11:00 PM.  Boarded the plane, the plane backed out and we stopped and waited and waited and waited.  Flight attendants indicated that there were bad storms but as soon as they could determine a different route and avoid we would take off.  Actually, moved out onto the taxiway after an hour wait and then parked the plane for another hour and half and sat. 

Now we are not happy and we are not the only ones unhappy.  Okay by law now, the plane taxied back to the gate and they open the door of the plane and indicated that we would be able to get off.  However, if you get off you may not be able to get back on due to security or lack thereof.  Second, if you chose to depart the plane you had to take your carry on luggage with you also due to security issues.  Well after some assurance that passengers could depart from the plane and be able to get back on half the plane de-boarded with the strict warning that they need to stay close by because if a window opened up we would head out immediately. 

Approximately another hour passed by.  Cheryl and I chose to stay on the plane.  I didn't want to take any chances with missing this flight at all.  The crew announced that the weather was breaking and that we would head right out and take off.  Re-boarded plane, backed away from gate and moved out onto the taxiway.  Once there we waited and waited and waited.

At this point we had text Taylor and asked him to take our vehicle to the airport and park it and then lock the keys in it and text us the location.  We had no idea if we would still be in New York by morning or not.  Finally, the pilot came on and announced that we were 10th in line to take off.  Hm...I think I heard that over two hours ago.

Finally after approximately 7 hours of waiting the plane finally departed.  The next 5 hours of flight seemed to take for ever.  I never did think that we would finally make our home destination.  Passengers were cranking to say the least. 

Finally we began our final approach to the airport and turned to Cheryl and told her we need to put our electronic equipment away and prepare for landing.  We did so.  I'm watching the GPS Flight Tracking and note that we have dropped to 10,000 feet in elevation and think that the Flight Crew will make their finally announcement and check of the cabin for landing. 

Hm..no announcement until we have reach 5000 feet.  Hm.. the flight attendants are just starting to make a final check.  I turned to Cheryl and told her they are way behind the eight ball on this task when the lead flight attendant comes back on the radio and firmly instructs all attendants to get to their jump seats and I sensed that the plane is about to touch down. 

Yes, folks the first time I have ever seen this but we had passengers and flight attendants standing in the aisles as our plane landed.  Luckily, no one was injured.  I'd say our chief flight attendant was a bit groggy also.

So our adventure ends at 5:00 AM on Friday morning the 27th instead of 10:30 PM on the 26th but we are home safe and sound ready for a long weekend.  Well we will take the weekend to recoup.