Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Time to head for come
Last day, up early and headed for Heathrow to start the trip home. The journey comes to an end with a BIG travel day!
They say that "all good things must come to an end" and so our journey takes one last leap across the Atlantic from London to Los Angeles and home to Camarillo.
Remember that the major framework of this vacation came from redeeming miles earned mostly on United Airlines and honored by United's Star Alliance mileage partners. 1,000,000 earned air miles redeemed for two business class around-the-world tickets brought us to this point in the journey.
Since redeemed air miles are still based on availability, we had to route on United from London-to-Chicago (point of US Customs entry)-to-Denver-to-Los Angeles...a BIG travel day.
We checked out of our London hotel and got to Heathrow in 21 minutes dashing in a "black cab" through the usually crowded but now wide open early Sunday morning streets of London. Like the 405 in California, traffic moves at the fastest speed it can and we were flying out of London, up the M4 and into Heathrow.
We cautiously entered Heathrow expecting tight security and delays. There was evidence of tight security, but Ginny routed us from the "main" line at United
Ginny on the plane
UK-to-Chicago leg, step #1 into
the Business Class line and we checked in under 8 minutes and with smiles all around.
We were off to the United Red Carpet Club lounge in record time where we had a continental breakfast and the lounge to ourselves. By 7am it was time to board, we made it down to the gate, checked through and waited about 10 minutes before we boarded into Business Class.
Star Alliance partners Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines were the best we flew on. United was okay but a step down from the others. Our concern was our connection in Chicago to Denver which was under 90 minutes with a US Customs entry.
Were we surprised! Although we went through the unique step of having our passports reviewed by US Customs officials as we stepped off the airplane before exiting through the jetway, we made our way downstairs, our bags came off first and then on to a very short line through the first passport check step in under 5 minutes. Given all the places we had been, we were welcomed home by US Customs with just a few questions and without delay - what a great
John on the plane
UK-to-Chicago leg, step #1 feeling!
We came to the US Duty officer stage were we presented our declaration of items purchased which was more than our allowed duty value and we were prepared to be inspected and pay the duty tax...but were waved through without a physical check or without paying additional duty tax! Pays to declare in detail and with full and open honesty.
Through the next set of doors we checked our bags back to United on through to Los Angeles...that took under 3 minutes.
We had time in Chicago to order a famous Chicago Pizza (trumped the Chinese "American Delight" pizza by about 1000%!) and onto Denver. The Denver flight was on schedule and we made it without issue. We arrived in LA right on schedule and met our driver in the baggage area to take us home.
Our bags didn't come out first...but they came out second and we laughed out loud and high-fived each other that our bags were never lost or delayed throughout the entire journey...over 42,000 miles traveled with 23 flight segments. Who would have thought that could be possible in this day and age!?!
A nice drive home and
John on the plane
Through US Customs, Chicago-to-Denver leg #2. when we entered Camarillo
Chicago-to-Denver (1 of 2)
and the Oxnard Plain the temperature was about 72 degrees, the sun was shining and it was another perfect day in California. It is always great to come home after a major trip, but this was special given that of all the places we visited on this around-the-world journey, this was the best weather and a great place to call home.
We have suffered some jet lag since we have been home, but we have come through it okay. John returned to work and although the re-entry was not easy, it was successful and with mostly good news of accomplishments and successes during his absence.
John heads for Puerto Rico on Sunday for a few months to complete 2007 business objectives but all in all, it was a great trip, a great return and now we get the opportunity to sort through all the memories, scrap booking activites and picture/video editing over the course of the next few weeks and months.
It was truly "mission accomplished" for the Arbuckle around-the-world journey. We are much richer for the experience and will value the memories for the rest of our lives.
Ginny on the plane
Through US Customs, Chicago-to-Denver leg #2. Thanks to everyone for supporting us and we hope you enjoyed the blog!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0502s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb