I got home a little before midnight. I went through the mail and then took a hot bath and tried to go to sleep. It is now 3:00 am and I still haven’t slept. Decided to get up and blog and see if that will help me fall asleep when I try again. My body thinks it is 3:00 pm and not bedtime yet.
We checked out of the hotel at 8:00 Thursday evening in Nepal time. We got driven to the airport and went through customs and immigration and got checked into our flight. We ended up being done with all of that by 9:30 so we had a couple of hours to wait for our 00:30 flight.
Our first flight of the day was a rough start to the day. Something was off with the flight crew. They were cranky and the flight was full of cranky people. The guy sitting next to me must have been 6’4” tall. When we were served our meals he acted like he hadn’t eaten in days. His elbow covered my food. The seats were small and there was little room to sit, let alone to eat. I couldn’t see my food while he was eating as his elbows covered it. I wasn’t hungry so gave up trying to figure out a way to eat. The guy was oblivious to the problem he was creating for me. It was a long five hour flight.
We had a five hour layover in Dubai. We found a Hard Rock Cafe and had a meal. The food almost tasted familiar- not quite but it was good.
We started loading for our almost fifteen hour flight an hour before takeoff. We had to go to security again. The plane was a double decker with the rich people on the upper level that had a lounge and a shower. We were on the lower deck. The airline was Emirates which I highly recommend. The service was excellent and the seats were much bigger than our first flight.
There was a baby that looked to be ten-months old or so near us. He got tired of flying and cried loudly for at least an hour of the flight. I felt bad for his mother. She also had a four-year old to manage. I felt like crying after flying about ten hours of the long flight myself.
Both Nicole and I had an empty seat beside us on this flight so we could spread out a bit. That made the flight a bit more bearable but it was a fucking long flight.
We landed in JFK on time but it took a bit to get off the plane. We had to get on a bus to get to the terminal. The bus ride was over 20 minutes long. Then we had to go through customs and immigrations. Luckily neither one had long lines and we got through all that fairly quickly. We had to walk about a mile to get to our gate. We got there with about 20 minutes to spare.
Our third flight of the day was about two hours long. We flew from JFK to Detroit. That plane was full too and they gave us a small bag of chips and a drink. We landed a bit early in Detroit and had to walk a bit to our next gate.
We had enough time to get to the gate and then get a sandwich to eat. Our next flight was partly full and left on time. Again, it was only a little less than two hours before we arrived in KC around 9:30 KC time.
Nicole’s husband picked us up and we went to Nicole’s house. I picked up my car and drove home and got home around midnight.
It is a mind twister to me that it took us 24 hours by the clock to fly for 23 hours plus 13 hours of layovers. No wonder I can’t sleep! My mind and body has no idea what time it is and what time zone I am in. Time makes no sense to me right now.
We were lucky today in that all four flights were on time and we had no unexpected delays. Our luggage arrive at JFK that we had to check and we were able to hand carry on the last two flights. The day went as smoothly as it could have but it felt like it was one never ending day. I don’t know when to eat or sleep!
What an adventure we had. It will take me some time to process all that I saw. I certainly like Nepal better than India. The energy was lighter and the food was easier for me to eat. Nepal was cleaner in some ways although it would be a stretch to call Nepal clean.
The time with Nicole was the best part of the trip. This was our sixth trip together. She lets me go decision free for the most part on the trip. She helped navigate the airports, took care of my passport and all the details of the airports, and watched after me. I am usually the one that navigates things for others and it is a real treat to be able to follow instead of lead. My brain needed that vacation. We laughed, we cried, and made some wonderful memories together.
It is SO good to be home again. I have a busy week ahead with Thanksgiving on Thursday next week. I have a mammogram and bone density test on Tuesday. I need to pick up the cookies I ordered for the Detention Center Thanksgiving on Monday. I have several things that came in the mail that I need to take care of next week as well as preparing the Thanksgiving feast.
My family is having Christmas on December 13 so I will need to start getting organized for that. I ordered most of the gifts I am giving before I left and I have a pile of packages to open and sort through.
Phil had laid the flooring in the addition as well as painted it. He is starting to install the toilet. I love how that room looks. It will be the nicest room in the house and it is for storage. It will be so good to get the freezer out of my bedroom and the storage racks that are in the living room moved out. We will also be able to clear off the front porch that is currently loaded with storage stuff.
I will talk to Phil tomorrow and find out what the plan is to finish the rest of it. The shower tile still needs to be installed, the shower doors put up, the bathroom sink and vanity need installed and the trim needs put up around the windows. It needs a bathroom door and bathroom light fixtures. The heat and air guy hasn’t come yet so I need to call them Monday and find out when they are coming.
Maybe now that I have dumped this all out of my head I can sleep. I’m not sure if I am tired or hungry or just wired still from the adrenaline of coming home. I slept for 20 minutes at a time on the plane. Just enough to knock the edge off but not near enough sleep but can’t sleep now. It may take me a bit to readjust to my normal schedule. I am not the best of sleepers under normal conditions. Guess I will sleep when I can find it and figure it all out as it goes.
Grateful for a safe journey home, so very grateful to be home, and grateful for the time I got to spend with Nicole.