Back in the USSA

We finally made the trip across the ocean to return to the US of A. What an interesting trip. The computer on the airplane lost the flight plan so the crew had to rebuild it before we could leave. That and loading delays got us out of the gate almost an hour late.

The flight was smooth, plenty of food and watchable movies, but it was the time after the landing that was the icing on the cake. They parked at the gate furthest from the terminal. We got through the first passport check, collected our luggage and got in line for customs. They just put a big A on our customs form (we are carrying cats) and sent us to another line.

We waited there for a while before they realized that we only had cats. We also watched a bunch of kids leave the line when they discovered they had all checked the box for visiting a farm (but never walked through manure) and didn't need to be in that line. We went to a line with no one in it and checked in the cats. Then the agent asked if we had brought any food for them so we showed him the bag of food we brought. Since we didn't have the original bag he wanted to take all of it, but he finally agreed to leave them a few days worth of food. Good thing since it is prescription food that you can't buy at stores.

The next corner we came around had someone telling us that we needed to put our checked luggage through a second screening and they would send it to the domestic baggage claim. Then go through another x-ray screening. This time we had to take the cats out of their bags and carry them through the metal detectors. We finally caught up with our luggage, the second time to find out that the capitalist society we live in doesn't believe in free luggage carts (first thing to miss about Brussels). Walked the half mile to the hotel shuttles in nearly 100 degree temps and finally boarded for the trip to the hotel.

Now it is 6:15 in the morning, the sun has yet to come up over the horizon. It almost feels like winter in Brussels, except for the temp. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my burbling.