Homeward Bound

---

Home at Last!

Margie got home in Germany late Tuesday night and we left the following morning. It was great to see Margie with the Arizona tan that we missed by being in a rainy month of Germany.

We took the 611 bus to the Hauptbohnof in Bonn and caught the 8:14 ICE high speed train to Frankfurt airport. Our journey home had a pleasant surprise when our tickets for the 10+ hour flight to Los Angeles on Lufthansa was upgraded to Business Class by a very nice ticket agent. When she handed us our boarding passes, she said: "Welcome to Lufthansa Business Class." The seats completely reclined and at 6 ft 6", I don't think I have ever been unable to reach the seat in front of me with my feet before.

As we sat there at the gate in Frankfurt, the flight was delayed because of the illness of a passenger but after a half hour of relaxing with a glass of champagne (agony), we were off. We arrived in LA at 5:30 pm local, but it took a very long time to clear customs. We surmised it was due to the Republican budget cuts, but it could just be SOP for government work.

Finally, we boarded the familiar Southwest 737 on the flight we thought we had missed by the long customs lines but, as it turned out, had been delayed for reasons unknown and arrived home at 10 pm. Of course, we picked up Rudy.

I couldn't sleep, so I walked around the yard to check out which plants survived the month and heard the pool's salt system complaining with a beep-beep indicating that it wasn't working. So, that is something which we have to deal with in the coming days.

Well, we have lots of mail and pictures to sort through, so when we catch our breath, we will post or final pictures and some blog-closing remarks. Stay tuned.

Peter and Linda

---