Bill and Jan RVing the USA

I had intentions of finishing up this blog yesterday, but Bill turned 85 and we spent the day with very special friends, Harry and Carlena, celebrating his birthday.

Our final days of the cruise continue. In order to return to the USA we needed another Covid test.  The ship supplied the antigen test on the last day without charge.  Most every one used the QR Code on their phones.  Like I said most did.  I had a paper with the code, because I wasn't sure I could find the code in my phone and didn't want to hold up the line.  Our appointment was in the morning and I actually was able to bring up both of the codes for our test on the phone.  It was extremely well organized.  In the evening they knocked on your door and handed you a copy of the test.  

The following morning we just walked off the ship without any long waiting for your group to be called.  

The transfer bus was waiting and once it was about half full it left for the airport.  

When we arrived at the airport, we were again temperature checked.  Once inside we went to the United counter to check our bags.  In the past, we've never paid to check bags for an international flight.  It was $35 a bag from the US and it costs $30 to return to the United States--same airline.  At the counter, the agent looked bewildered.  He checked our luggage and gave us our boarding passes for Dulles.  Wait, we're suppose to go Newark.  It seems that all the major airports had terrible storms come through the day before and all the flights were cancelled.  The agent said he could get us to Phoenix via Dulles or we could wait another day in Saint Maarten and fly out the next day for Newark.  Knowing our Covid test would expire 48 hours from the time we took it, I said Dulles would be fine.  I didn't mention that this agent was so confused that he didn't even ask for our negative covid test.

Our original flight was scheduled to leave at 12:20 and this one was to leave at 1:50.  I mentioned when we arrived that the airport was very small with 10 gates.  The gates are where you got on the bus and the bus took you to your plane.  I was glad our carry on was light.  You were given the option of checking your carry on for free so we only had one to haul up the steps to the plane.  

We had a tasteless ice cream while we waited for our flight there wasn't much else but a pizza counter.  

Bill and I didn't have seats together but the flight attendant asked if we wanted to sit together so she asked a fellow if he would change seats with Bill.  

It was around a 5 hour flight and there were some rough areas, but not a bad flight.  The same water, cookie and pretzel that we had on the other flights. was served.  

We were sitting in the back of the plane, so were the last ones off.  Knowing that our connecting flight to Houston wasn't until the next morning we weren't in a big hurry.  I couldn't get all of my finger prints to show enough in the Global Entry Machine to make it work. We then went over to the regular lines at the passport control which were empty.  

We then went down the stairs to retrieve our luggage and then put it back on the transfer conveyor.  By now everyone from our flight was already gone.  Not seeing anything for Saint Maarten I went up to the customer service desk to ask which carousel it was on.  The women asked her superior and he said it was all gone.  They made a few phone calls and asked us what our luggage looked like.  Thank goodness for my dayglow green luggage.  I've never seen a piece of luggage like mine.  After about an hour, she told us they had located it and it would be coming out the conveyor belt soon.  While we were standing around in that big room without anyone else but the two in the customer service, I asked if the following morning was the earliest we could leave.  She said we could go to customer service in another concourse but the lines were huge and our best bet was to take the flight out the next morning.  

I knew the answer to my next question, but asked anyway.  I asked if they were supplying a hotel for those whose flights were cancelled.  She said they wouldn't do anything because it was weather related.  

Her supervisor started making calls and then came over and said they would supply a hotel for us.  They had a hard time finding one that had a 24 hour shuttle.  The lady gave me a voucher for the hotel and a $40 meal voucher.  She hand wrote out directions how to leave the airport via the train and where to pick up the shuttle to the hotel.

Her supervisor got our luggage off the carousel and said he'd take us down to the transfer carousel.  He wouldn't let either of us handle the luggage.  We got down to the place where you put your luggage back in and he asked if we needed anything out of the bags for the hotel.  Kudos to those United Airline employees who took sure good care of us.

When we arrived at the Best Western, the clerk told us that we could go across the street to O'Malley's Pub and redeem our meal vouchers.  We dropped our bag in the room and headed over to the Holiday Inn across the street.  

When we walked in the door, we were immediately bombarded with noise.  Everywhere we looked pre teens were running up and down the halls.  Some were playing ball and you could hardly get past them.  It looked like the parents were all in the lobby completely ignoring them.  

O'Malley's was no different.  We ended up sitting at the bar and the bartender gave us a menu and never came back.  We waited about an hour and decided to leave.  When we went by the registration desk, there was an area for snacks.  Bill got a beer, and we found two sandwiches in the cooler.  We used one of our $20 vouchers.  

When we got back to the room and unwrapped the sandwich it was so soggy wet.  I think the red thing might have been a slice of tomato.  I peeled off the cheese and ate it.  The rest went in the trash.

The room wasn't much.  It had one of those low toilets if that gives you an idea of the room.  They had shampoo and conditioner but no soap.  We were too tired, so just used shampoo to shower with.

We took the 4 am shuttle back to the airport. When  we got back to the airport we found people sleeping on the floor and across all the seats.  

The line for customer service stretched across 4 gates.  People were sitting on the floor in line for customer service.  Some were sleeping against their carry on bags.  There wasn't anyplace open where we could get something to eat.

Our flight to Houston was smooth but we knew we only had a short window to make the next flight.  Of course, it wasn't in the same concourse.  Luckily we made the flight with a few minutes to spare.

When we neared Phoenix, the captain announced that the flight attendants were to get in their jump seats.  They never came back through the plane to make sure every one had their seat backs up and tray tables secured.  It was a rough landing, and looking out the window we could hardly see the gates as they were experiencing a dust storm.

Once we had our luggage we walked out and the shuttle was there to take us back to the parking lot.

When we parked the car, before the trip, we made sure we wrote the spot down so we wouldn't have any trouble finding the car.  We even left the paper with the location of the parking spot right between the front seats.  Lucky for us, we didn't have any problem finding the car.  I was very nervous about the dust storm, but by the time we arrived on I 10 it looked like we were just at the tail end of the storm.  

As we were driving home, we were discussing our next adventure.  Yes, we had some stressful moments, but nothing we couldn't handle.  The trip was a chance to get away. Now that we did that, we're ready for a real adventure trip.  We're always thankful of how things turned out.  It could have been much worse.

Turtle Safely..........