Going Home! - 6th/7th June 2012 and Epilogue

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Today we go home!

Di is up early and gets packed. Her plan is to have one last day of sunbathing before we head off to the airport. But she is thwarted by the weather as the thunderstorms have replaced the sunshine. We spend the morning getting packed up and Facetiming.

At 12:30 we check out of the hotel and get a taxi to the airport. We have to hang around at the airport for about an hour before we are allowed to check -in.We have a drink at the bar as we wait, eventually we are allowed to check-in. We go through to the security check, where we get held up for what must be 45 mins. There was something amiss with a family's luggage, but none of the security staff seemed capable of making a decision - they just kept passing it up the line and kept us all waiting.

We eventually got through security and made our way to the lounge. It was a bot of a disappointment that Virgin Atlantic did not have a lounge at Miami Airport , and the lounge that was there did not come near to comparing with the one that we enjoyed so much in London. We have a couple of hours wait and eventually board the flight. Again the plane is older than the one that we took out of London. And we are less impressed with the Virgin Atlantic flight for the return flight leg. The flight was bumpy most of the way back, and the explanation was that we were flying higher to arrive home early -So we had to endure the rough ride!! When it came tothe meals, they did not have my choice, and the choice of wines was fairly limited, Di got her head down after the meal and slept for most of the flight. I stayed up and watch the films. We arrived back at London Heathrow and had a few hours to kill before our flight to Aberdeen - which we spent in the BA Lounge getting some breakfast and catching up on the UK news. We arrived back in Aberdeen and was picked up by our son Craig - The end of a great vacation

Epilogue

Well that's another lifetime ambition fulfilled - to journey across America !

We enjoyed the trip. On the latter stages the train journey's were a little long and could be tiring, but we packed a lot into the four weeks. We travelled some 3,500 miles on the train and a further 933 miles by road. With the flights to and from the US the total mileage was 13,297 miles, this does not include the trip down to Miami and the Carribean Cruise

The highlight must have been the Grand Canyon. We were also impressed with Chicago, and would maybe like to return there for a longer spell. We also enjoyed the journey through the Rockies with all the various wild life that we encountered. The stay on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California was also memorable

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