Back to Florida

I'm back in Tampa for my first drill after moving to Italy, and so far it's been a good trip. My flights over were very smooth, but more on that in a second. I spent a nice Saturday with some of Tony's family, just relaxing and enjoying the company since our plans to go tubing down the river got rained out. It was worth the two-hour drive and I'm glad I went. Today I went to Davis Island to drill, and it was a very quiet 8 hours. I did a bunch of online training and went to a short presentation. And Tony called me! This is exciting because international calling plans cost a fortune, and we've only been texting and e-mailing and Facebooking since I left. He got a MagicJack and now we have an American phone number at our house in Italy! I have about a million phone numbers right now; Italian home phone, American internet number at home in Italy, American internet number for my cell, Italian cell phone, and American cell phone. Whew.

I got up at 5:30 on Friday, after only about 3 hours of terrible sleep; I'd been laying awake since about 4:15 and couldn't got back to sleep. This is a very frequent occurrence just before I travel, and mostly I'm used to it. We left the house around 6:30 and Tony drove me to the base, where I then caught the (free!) shuttle to Marco Polo Airport in Venice. It took just less than an hour to get there, which was great because it took me about 45 minutes to get my boarding passes and drop off luggage, and another 30 minutes to get through security. From there I flew to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, which was roughly 2 hours. I finished the book I'd been reading on that flight, and then got on an extremely crowded shuttle and went through Customs and security once we arrived. I'd forgotten how big that airport is, but it has some really neat things. I didn't have a huge amount of time before boarding my next flight to JFK: first trip on a double-decker plane! That flight was about 9 hours, during which I watched the latest Muppet movie and read another book. I did not sleep and I did not study, two things I'd been planning on doing. I flew AirFrance and they took really good care of me. Before the dinner service they came around with aperitifs so of course I had champagne. And one of my favorite moments of the trip happened on that leg of my journey too. When the flight attendant came around with dinner, he asked what I'd like to drink and I asked if he had red wine. He laughed and said, "It is AirFrance. We ALWAYS have red wine!"

Once I got to JFK it was pretty easy to go through customs; since last I traveled internationally through there they got these handy-dandy kiosks that make the process a lot quicker. My bag didn't take very long to come through, and I breezed through customs with no problems. I had to print a new boarding pass, because apparently our scanners are not compatible with the pass I got in Italy, and I learned my flight was delayed about 45 minutes. Something about trickle-down effect from earlier delayed flights. Eh, no biggie. I went through security again and got some food, and learned my flight also switched gates. Once we boarded that plane, the pilot told us there was a comms issue, and we were waiting on a part to arrive and get swapped out, and that we'd be delayed some more. Once all that was sorted out we started taxiing, and then came to a halt after only a couple of minutes. The pilot told us another aircraft was making an emergency landing and we all had to stand by and wait until they made it safely through. [They did.] Finally, we were off! I dozed for a bit and then finished up that second book. We landed sometime after 11 Friday night, and I'd been traveling for 24 hours at that point. Luckily, my bag didn't take very long to come through and there was only a very short line at the rental car counter. And at midnight, there's no traffic! It only took me about 10 minutes to get to my hotel, but I was annoyed because there was a bar/club attached that caused a parking lot issue. I had to park far away and walk in, after making 2 Austin Powers turns because of blocked off rows. And then once I got settled into my room, I realized I left my old phone (the American one) in the car and had to go back out and fetch it, since I didn't want to tempt/risk a break-in. Finally I was ready to sleep! I thought I'd sleep about ten hours, but six hours later I popped wide awake. I tried to go back to sleep but, failing that, took a shower and hit the road to hang out with Tony's family in Crystal River.

I fly again on Friday. My flight is scheduled to land around midnight, so I did the prudent thing and booked a hotel room. Saturday I'll drive to upstate NY and visit my family! I'll see siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and second cousins! Can't wait.

Sucky things about traveling solo:
1) No one to watch your bags at the airport when you have to use the bathroom.
2) No one to people-watch with.
3) No one to rest on while you're napping.
4) No back up toiletries or chargers if you forgot something.
5) No one to laugh with about the red wine.

Did I miss any?