Early, early wake up time. We have to be at the airport by 5:00 am so we were up at 4:00 am. We got things we had taken out repacked - mostly electronics we wanted charged.
Checking out, we were able to get free "breakfast to go" bags that included cereal bars, juice, bananas and muffins. Pretty good.
The Holiday Inn had a 24/7 shuttle so we got on that within 5 minutes. It was only about 8 minutes to the airport. It was a good thing we were there early because the line to pay the departure tax was pretty long. Luckily, we had gotten a porter to move our bags because he was very helpful in showing us where to go for the departure tax and how to fill out the forms - then where to check in.
We got through security in plenty of time and I got a few pictures of the mountains outside the departure gate.
I ate the banana and the muffin. I should have had the juice since it was confiscated in a final security just before getting on the plane. The bottle was all sealed up but they took it anyway. Oh, well.
I was very happy on the plane. They showed the movie Water For Elephants. I had read (and shared with everyone) this book several years ago. I was glad to be able to watch the movie but it did cut into my naptime.
We arrived in Atlanta on time and went through the whole Customs/Immigration ordeal.It wasn't as bad as some places we have been through. All our luggage arrived and that's a good thing!
We stopped for a real meal at T.G.I.Fridays, then on to our gate. We were there about 30 minutes, then the gate changed so we dragged our stuff up the hall to the new gate. Boarding was pretty easy, then we taxied out for takeoff.
Then, we stopped. The pilot said that there were storms in the DC area so we couldn't land there. He figured that the storm was colser to Reagan airport and those flights were probably diverted to Dulles (our airport) and Baltimore. Whatever.
We sat, with the engines off, on the field. No engines, no A/C. They passed out ice water and told us to close the window shades to keep it "cooler". Right.
Finally, we were able to take off. Although I could see that we passed through some thunder storms, the flight was fairly smooth.
Into Dulles, got one suitcase. The big one is nowhere. Finally, that showed up and we got a taxi for home. Then off to get our dog ant the trip was over.
There will be more pictures later from Tom's camera plus the ones we took with the waterproof carmera in the Rainmaker rainforest.
Fairwell to
Thanks for reading!
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