The Return Flight

I leave the hotel at 7:00AM by taxi. I am headed to the airport and I notice that little is open this early in the morning. The Hotel didn’t have their breakfast ready, so I couldn’t pick up a cup of coffee. My flight does not leave until 11:00AM, but you never know if traffic will flow or if it will stop. I expect it will take us an hour to get to the airport and the Concierge suggested I give myself an hour to get to the Airport.

I arrive at the airport at 7:20AM. The taxi driver can’t find a place to pull over and let me out. He stops in the middle of a 4 lane road and lets me out. I have to cross 2 lanes of taxi and bus traffic to get to the safety of the curb, before I can enter the airport.

A cup of coffee would be good to have, but nothing is open at 7:30AM. The ticket counter is open, so I get my ticket and check my one bag. I go through security and Good Morning to the eight security folks that have a cup of coffee in their hands. I wonder where they found their cups of coffee. I make my way through immigrations and I head to the frequent flyer lounge. Maybe the lounge will have some coffee available to drink.

I am the first person in the lounge this morning. I find an espresso machine tucked behind a small wall on the far side of the lounge. There are four buttons with different types of coffee. I push the Café Americano button and out squirts an espresso shot, so I add some hot water and some milk to make a full cup of coffee. It is passable for a cup of coffee and I can choke it down along with a croissant. The thought crosses my mind that the croissant is going to send my BG sky high.

I sit down to wait for my flight. The lounge has free wireless access, so I do some e-mail and work on a few things. Another cup of coffee would keep me going. I head over to the machine and this time I push the cappuccino button and out squirts a shot of espresso. I am beginning to see a pattern with this machine. I mix up a cup of almost American coffee and I head back to my computer.

The lounge is getting busy, more folks are coming in.

It is time to head to my gate. I get on the plain and settle in for the twelve our flight.

There are more movies to watch and fewer magazines to read. I have read through most of the magazines I brought with me. I looked at the new shop in the airport, but all I could find were French language magazines. Unfortunately I could only look at the pictures, so I didn’t pick up any new reading material.

I went to sleep on this flight. I slept about six hours this time. The travels and meetings and time changes are catching up to me.

We land in Dallas and I transfer flights. I arrive in Denver two hours later. Again I sleep for about an hour.

It takes me an hour to drive home from the Denver airport. After all of the sleep on the plains I am still tired.

I can’t wait to get into my own bed. I want to wake to a cup of my own coffee. I will be good to see and talk to the family and the dogs, and of course TRW.

It is good to be home.