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20071220 Atlanta (actually Newnan, GA) (No pictures, sorry)
We were up at 0530 and went to breakfast (as good as every other day).
Then we waited briefly in the lounge for our bus to be called, whereupon we started our trip to the Munich airport. It was a little foggy and rime ice covered all the tree branches - very pretty.
It took almost two hours to Munich; I got a little sleep enroute. There, we checked on the availability of a non-stop flight to Atlanta but found none that worked out. So we checked into United (blech!!) and began the process of going through security.
Perhaps due to the Muslim assasination of the Isreali weight-lifters at the Olympics here in the 70's, security was a real bear. We passed through at least three metal detectors and were body-searched twice.
Then we got into our cattle-car 777 and waited for an hour. They may have been de-icing the plane, but I didn't see that. We finally got underway late but made up most of the lost time by the time we landed at Dulles airport outside Washington DC, close to our former home in Manassas VA. The seats were uncomfortable, and the guy ahead of me put his seatback seemingly into my face. I walked around as much as possible. Lufthansa was much better with their 747. I've found out since that UA is at the very bottom of the list of airlines regarding customer satisfaction - the reason I haven't flown them on my own reservations since the mid-80's.
We walked for miles in Terminal C to get to customs and immigration, claim our bags then put them on the conveyor to be put onto the next flight, and hurried to our next flight's gate, arriving there just in time. But then UA couldn't get two elderly ladies out of the incoming regional jet airplane (they were incapable of walking down the plane's stairway), so we waited some more. A portable lift finally showed up to lift the ladies to the ground.
The flight to ATL was uneventful but for the rain there. We found the Hertz counter and rented a car, then took our luggage to the bus that dropped us at the car. The car's trunk wouldn't open, so an attendant brought us another.
We were totally exhausted and figured we'd not make it to the Parkinson's in Cumming, and if we did we wouldn't be coherent. So we drove 20 miles and stopped at a motel and flopped into bed. What a day.
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20071221 Home
We drove home uneventfully and started the recovery phase. It was a wonderful trip and one we'd do again. The small-ship environment is great; everyone ought to do one of these so they can see how nice it is to have a small group around you. The convenience of unpacking once and staying in the same room (while it moves) is a large part of it.
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