I spent the morning (quite rainy) catching up on posts, looking at pics, etc. When George and Martha came down we made a plan for how to best use the leftovers and started in. 🙂
We whiled away the afternoon chatting about this and that, talking about what we’d learned, looking things up on the net, packing, making notes and dreaming of returning ASAP to this wonderful place.
Day turned into evening and after dinner we said our good-byes (I needed to get out the door by 6:30 to return the car to Malpensa and their ride wasn’t arriving until 7:45 to take them to Linate). The rain had finally stopped so the air was clear and clean and cool. Those lights in the distance dotting the hills in Brianza and turning into more of a glow toward Milan were twinkling mightily. I stood a good long while at the bedroom window just taking it all in before finally crawling into bed in hopes of some good rest before an early and long day traveling home.
It was not to be… I finally fell asleep around 5 AM and the alarm went off at 6:00. I left at 6:30 and only made one wrong turn which was easily corrected but drove first to Terminal 1 then I thought I remembered Mark said to go to Terminal 2 so I went there and figured out that wasn’t the right one so went back to Terminal 1. Turned the car in and made it in plenty of time. Got almost to the gate and realized I’d left purse at security so went back to get it. Flight to Newark was fine but didn’t sleep. Newark plane was being worked on so delay there which caused missed connection in Chicago.
Went to the gate in Chicago and the sign said “boarding closed” but the door was open so another guy who had also just arrived and I asked if we could get on. The woman said “quick, quick – your boarding pass!” and I grabbed it out of my purse. She glanced at it and said go! I couldn’t believe it. My phone said it had gone 10 minutes before so I was surprised and thrilled. As I was boarding the plane, the woman came down the jetway and said she couldn’t find my name and asked where I was going. I said Wichita and she said oh no, this one is Louisville! I just started laughing and was so relieved to have caught it before I got on the plane!!
I went back out, picked up my boarding pass from beside her keyboard, found the gate for the next Wichita flight, which was full, and got on standby for the next flight. I went to the service desk thinking I would get my hotel voucher in advance in case I couldn’t get on standby but after standing in line for 30 minutes I found out they can’t give the voucher until you actually miss the flight. The guy said if it happened, though, I could come straight to him and get the voucher and skip the line. Very nice. He gave me a voucher for food so I took the shuttle from F to C concourse (dumb idea – it’s down some stairs, out into the rain, onto the minibus then back out into the rain and up stairs at the other end) to find Wolfgang Puck’s place, which turns out to be on B concourse. I was almost delirious by that time so not surprised to make that mistake. Walked back to B, got a salad and glass of wine then headed back to gate to see if I would make it on standby. I made it. Plane was late leaving so arrived home at 11:30. 24 hour trip door to door.
Can’t wait to do it again, Lord willing. 🙂
In the end, life is all about relationships and that’s certainly the case with this wonderful trip. It was wonderful primarily because of the time we got to spend with these dear (now even dearer) friends:
Hither, Yon and Skies 