Travel Tip

Nowadays, many of us use mobile boarding passes.  Quick tip - don't hit the back button just before you try to get on the plane, then hold up the line because you don't remember where you saved it, and then give them the one for your next connection so it doesn't scan.

I did let people go in front of me, but that was not fun.

We set off!

So, Friday was takeoff day.  We got the dogs set at the kennel, then went home to finish packing.  I think the hardest part was getting through Bentonville.  It was lunch time and we needed to eat before we left.

Probably the best flight was from XNA to Dallas.  It was 2 seats and 2 seats, and they were big enough you could lean against the back and not hit shoulders with the person next to you.

Dallas to Madrid sucked.  It was a 787, which Frank has requested we never fly again, along with the 767 (which mom doesn't like either).  I am perfectly fine with that.  This flight had okay food and stuff, but the seats were so close that you would hit shoulders.  And my back hurt pretty much the entire way.  I just couldn't quite get comfortable.  Did see a few movies on the flight:  Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Kong: Skull Island, and Paris Can Wait.  I liked all of them.  And there was yummy strawberry yogurt for breakfast.

I think Madrid is probably the start of our saga.  We got in around 9 am and our next flight wasn't until noon.  When you get off the plane, you walk up the big jetway, which was fairly long.  Then you walk all the way down the terminal.  They have 2 terminals with are both shaped like a small letter "l."  Just long straight terminals.  So you walk all the way down the terminal, taking the moving walkways if you want to. Then you get to customs.  That was pretty easy too.  We zoomed through there.  Then we found the terminal for our next flight.  It was in HJK.  They don't give you a gate assignment until 1 hour before the plane leaves.

If  you switch terminals you have to go through security again.  But you don't have to take off your shoes!  So now we had to walk up and down banks of escalators to get to the tram to get to the next terminal and then up from the tram.  We finally made HJK, and it was packed, and had a bunch of perfumey shops stinking it up. I was getting pretty hungry by now.  I get low blood sugar and all the walking and sweating and not really having breakfast was getting to me.

We passed several places to eat but they were all serving breakfast, which was mainly croissants and jam.  Not what you need when your blood sugar is low.  There were a few pre-packaged sandwhiches, but the tuna salad sandwich looked the best, and there was no way I was eating a pre-packed tuna salad sandwich at an airport.

We hung out for a while in a quieter area of the terminal.  Once we got our gate number, we found a shop nearby that had better sandwiches. I got the caprese and jamon sandwich.  It was pre-packed, but looked a heckuva lot better.  It had lettuce and tomato, on ciabatta.  I called it my JLT - jamon, lettuce, and tomato.  It was okay.  A little salty.  I only ate about a third of it and saved the rest for later.

Paris!

We finally got to Paris!  I started to pass out as we got close, and almost missed the landing.  As we got to the north coast, I could see cliffs.  There was a huge cloud bank over France, and we were apprching it.  There was a river winding through the hills, and the outermost clouds were filling in the river valley.  It was beautiful!

We arrived and then had to walk a long ways and take a tram to get to customs.  The line was long but moved really fast.  They basically took a quick look at my passport and stamped it and that was it.  Then we had to find our luggage.  Mine was already there, but mom's took a long time.  We were really worried that her suitcase hadn't made it on the plane!

Her suitcase finally showed up, and then we left.  As we entered the main part of the airport, we had to run a gauntlet of people holding signs with names on them.  Amazingly, only one was using an iPad.  And apparently mom and I were both thinking that we wished our names were on there!

We found our way to the Roissy bus, which goes from the airport to downtown Paris for about 10 euros.  That was interesting!  We got on and started walking down the aisle, and the bus started moving!  A nice man got up and stowed our suitcases for us, while we tried to find a seat.  The trip was about an hour, through often narrow streets, with the driver shouting curses at other drivers and kissing other cars.  We thought there was going to be a wreck a number of times.

We got dropped off at the Opera, which is a beautiful building.  I was hoping to find a taxi stand, so we started walking down the street, and a taxi pulled up.  I waved at him, and his passenger was exiting, so we got in.  Our route took us by the Louvre, and then along the Seine, passing gorgeous buildings on either side.  That was about 14 euros.

We got to our hotel about 10:30, but luckily, our room was ready.  We were ready for it, too.

Eureka Springs

Had a great weekend there!  We stayed at the Bavarian Inn on Highway 62.  We always stay here because it's a good price and its right next to the Bavarian Inn Restaurant, which is one my favorites!

We had a great time in Eureka.  We hiked all up and down the hills geocaching, and on Saturday we watched the St. Patrick's Day parade.  I took a ton of photos, I'm just trying to figure out where to put them.  I'll put up a link once I have one.

If you've never been to Eureka, you really ought to.  It can be a little touristy and in the summer it gets crowded but it's got some funky little shops and some good food too.

If it's Monday, this must be America?

I feel like complete shit. I am completely jet-lagged out. My day started on Sunday. I take my medicine at 6 am, but I didn't get up until 7:00. Then it was the trip to Nizwa. It's about 1.5 hours or so, and I “napped” most of the way. By which, I mean that I had my eyes closed and I listened to music. After the trip, at 8 pm we met downstairs at the hotel with our luggage, and our flight left a little after midnight on Monday. On the way to Heathrow I slept about an hour. I slept another hour, hour and a half from Heathrow to Dulles. At which point I realized I had been traveling for about 21 hours, after being up for about 18, and still had 10 more hours to go. I started to wonder how long it took to drive from DC to Arkansas.

I was still doing okay at Dulles. Customs was fine, I made it through security again. I was one of the first so I skipped out on most of my group - I didn't feel up to a big hug-cry fest. I saw a few of them later on which was nice. So I left Dulles and flew to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport? I slept another hour on this flight, which was most of the flight. And this was when the jet-lag hit. I got off the plane and felt completely confused and somewhat nauseous. While I was buying water I asked what time zone I was in. I mean, I know Kentucky is easterly, but I thought Ohio was a bit more central? How the hell did I end up here? This is where I am writing this post. There's free wifi at Dulles and here, but I can't seem to get online, so you probably won't see this post until I get home.

So, only a few more hours until I'm home. Frank is cooking red beans and rice. I think I need to sleep for a week.

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Well, I made it home last night, but my luggage didn't. I know it was in Dulles, because I went through customs. But then it vanished. And you'll love this: Delta only scans baggage tags on arrival. So I won't know anything about my luggage until it gets to Arkansas. It wasn't on this morning's flight, but maybe it will show up tonight. If not, we're heading out to the airport tomorrow to find something out in person.

Oman Air Rocks!!!

Okay, so our plane leaves at 3:30 pm and arrives in Salalah at 4:45 pm. What would normally happen on an airplane? I'm pretty sure they would not feed you dinner! Yes, dinner! I had lamb and potatoes in some kind of tomato-ish sauce over pasta. The meal included a salad (cucumber, bell pepper, tomato, feta), half a slice of pita bread (I guess I should go back to calling it Arab bread), and some kind of dessert. It was pudding-ish (tapioca-ish) with coconut shavings on top. I didn't really like it. The water was pre-packaged courtesy of tanufwater.com of Oman.

Also, the soda cans over here still have pop-tops, and I think they're made with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. Frank: I regret to inform you that I have eaten lamb almost every day. In fact, I think I have eaten it every day. Ummmm.....lamb......

Leaving for Salalah

This morning was fun. We checked out at noon, and the buses were supposed to get us at 12:30. Well, it took a long time to get all our luggage loaded, so we didn't leave till after 1:00. We got to the airport about 1:30, and the greyhound-style bus was even later. Then we had to collect our luggage and go inside. You go through a big security thing, passengers only, where they scan your luggage and carry-ons. They did let me bring my water through though. Then you go to the check-in desk and they give you your boarding pass and take your ticket. Then you go through another passengers only check, and another security scan. And then you're finally there! I'm at the gate now, and it's almost 2:30. Our plane leaves at 3:30 – Oman Air.

More Travel

At Heathrow I decided I needed a real breakfast, with protein in it. Apparently if you want that you need to go to the pub, so I did. I had the traditional breakfast – and no, I couldn't finish it all. It consists of an egg, 1 sausage link, 1 big slice of bacon (more like Canadian bacon), baked beans, toast (butter on the side), and a tomato.

They had some good shops I'd like to hit on the way back- cigar store, World of Whiskey, etc. I wanted to take a photo of the Whiskey shop, but I figured I'd better ask first. They said Heathrow did not allow photography.

Atlanta to Washington, DC

12:45 pm (Eastern time)
The flight from Fayetteville to Atlanta wasn't bad at all. I haven't flown Delta in probably decades, and they were actually good. The flight attendant was nice. She offered me a choice of peanuts/cookies/crackers, and since I flew in the middle of the week, the seat next to me was empty. Even the Atlanta airport wasn't bad. We arrived early, and I grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-a. And you gotta love a town that only offers one type of tea – sweet! (So much for staying off of sugar.) Currently I'm on the flight to DC. Still Delta, still not bad. Same snack choice, but they also have alcohol. The seats are different but they aren't any larger. Maybe a bit longer, where your legs hit. And I got my window seat on both legs of the trip. I'm also growing fond of my neck pillow. I've never used one before, but I do like to relax and it's good for leaning against the bulkhead too. They also have real tea on the plane. I asked them what kind of tea they had, figuring it was Nestea in a can, and they came up with hot water and a tea bag. It takes so little to make me happy....and tea will do it. Luckily, I'm going to a tea-drinking part of the world!

Fayetteville to Atlanta

8:30 in the morning and I'm already mad. The State Department sent us an e-mail asking us to keep our luggage down to 1 suitcase and 1 carry-on for logistical purposes. Silly me, I tried to comply. I ended up with 1 large suitcase (large!), but my Arabic books wouldn't fit in it, so I put them in my intended carry-on. That alone was 27 pounds! So I ended up with 1 large suitcase, a carry-on of books that I checked, and my regular carry-on and, of course, my purse. Now, if you're traveling overseas you are allowed 2 pieces of checked luggage. But my ticket only goes to DC, and I had to check in electronically, so I only got 1 piece – there went $25 for my checked carry-on. The attendant weighed my large suitcase, and it was 65 pounds – there went $80. Eighty-freaking-dollars!!! Well, let's see: I have some regular clothes (not even a lot), some business clothes that I was told to bring, and formal wear that I was told to bring, and shoes for those items, and a travel iron to press the nice clothes, and the 2 months of vitamins/supplements which I need for my asthma, and my toiletries. So yeah, all that weighs a lot. I kept the receipts and I'm going to ask the State Department for a refund. And another thing – I'm flying in to Reagan Airport in DC, via Atlanta, and it will take me most of the day to get there. As I'm waiting for my plane to leave Fayetteville, I see a flight posted that leaves 30 minutes before mine – a direct connection to Washington-Reagan.