Flying and Waiting and Flying

We had the car turned in and were at the airport by 9:30 this morning.  That gave us plenty of time to check our bags, exchange what was left of our money, pick up some drinks/snacks for the flight, and go through security.  They chose to search Chad's carryon, and he fussed like an old man afterward because they "messed everything up' and he had to rearrange it.  Then we did a little last-last-minute shopping, turned in my VAT forms, and went through US Customs.  Now we are just waiting.  I am anxious to see what our seats are like, since we want to be able to watch the movies and not sleep on the way back.  Chad was unhappy to find out that we make the little hop to Dublin first before actually leaving.  The schedule showed it as a 10-11 hour flight, which it isn't, but it will take that long by the time we land and take off again.  Still, we should get in about 4:00 at home, then we are looking at probably close to another four hours - getting bags, going through immigration, waiting for the shuttle to the car, etc. - before we are finally back in Bloomington-Normal.

Interesting happenings in Dublin:
We landed, and the people who were just making the little hop from Shannon to Dublin got off, but no one got on.  The pilot made an announcement that we needed to refuel before heading out.  OK, that's weird....didn't we just leave Shannon with the intention of making a trans-Atlantic flight?  Weren't we fueled already?  Time passed, then another announcement:  US Customs agents had boarded the plane and wanted to see everyone's passports and customs forms.  There was a lot of coming and going of people in various uniforms, then a guy came on with a mirror on a stick.  He then proceeded to go through every overhead bin looking for who knows what.  People started to board, but we still sat there.  Finally, there was an announcement from the pilot that a passenger had been denied boarding, and they were removing his checked bags from the plane.  So was the refueling story just a ruse to cover the delay?

We got into Chicago about 30 minutes early, but it was still after 5:00 by the time we were in the car and headed home.  The parking lot guy tried to overcharge me, and then was snotty when I produced the receipt showing that I had paid the deposit online.  Then in all of the confusion, he ended up undercharging me.  Ha!  Traffic was horrible (hey, it's Friday rush hour) until almost Joliet but we finally got into B/N at 8:00.

And tomorrow it's back to work!