Final Day

Our departure day has unfortunately arrived and we were forced to pack up all of our gear, souvenirs and belongings that we had accumulated over the past two weeks one final time. We had a 6am wake up call in Munich that never came because of a "computer problem". We had a few "computer problems" today, but more on that later.

We had another usual Euro breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausages and fresh fruit that we quickly gobbled up since we figured we should be at the airport at about 7:30ish, so we had to catch the S8 train to head to airport. Just as we walked down the stairs to the train it showed up, so we figured it would turn out to be a great day.

We got to the airport and in most European airports the only thing past the security check is the gate at the duty free shopping. So we stopped and had a kafe late and a kafee from the greatest automated machine ever.

Since we are truly guys and don't think of anything until the last minute, we did some quick souvenir shopping at the "last chance" store. Great name. We went through the BusinessElite check in with no line while the rest of the plane had to wait to check in. Fancy men have fancy things to do and we shouldn't be bothered with lines!

We went through security and it was a breeze and everything makes sense. And by makes sense I mean you don't have to take your shoes off. Oh, I almost forgot that Ken somehow forgot to put his Gerber knife that he got as a gift from the Marines he worked with in Iraq so we made a donation to the Munich Fluhagen and made some worker's day.

We browsed the duty free and waited to board.

Once on the plane (we of course boarded through the fancy lane, or BreezeWay as Delta calls it. I like my name better) we selected our 5 course meal, took off and had to endure fully reclining seats for the 10hour 22min flight time. It was tough! 5 movies later, we arrived in Atlanta at about 2:30pm local time.

It is so confusing landing in an American airport on an international flight that they had to show a video prior to landing. We had to deplane, take the form(s) you filled out on the plane down a hallway with 3 sections of moving sidewalk, give them and your passport to the customs agent, get stamped in, go down stairs, claim your checked luggage, give a form to another customs agent who decides if your bags need to be checked (on a side note, I overheard an agent say that they "one" coming from Amsterdam at 3:15. I wonder if everyone's bags get checked on that flight) and re-check your luggage.

Once all this is through, you go through security again (be sure to remove your shoes) and then make your connecting flight in the regular terminals.

In Germany when we entered, we got out passports stamped and moved on.

So in Atlanta and back in the US where it was nice to be able to read the signs and understand conversations, we found our gate, went to the bathroom and boarded. We got out preflight drink and waited for an hour at the gate. Remember those pesky computer problems? Evidently the FAA's clearance center crashed and they had to clear flights manually, which worked in the 1970s but not today.

We had to pushback from the gate because they needed the gate and we spent the next 3 hours on the tarmack. We had a 4 hour lay over so we weren't to concerned. Once we got our departure approval we were still 35th in line, and because everything was being done manually, about every minute a plane was taking off instead of every 10 seconds on a normal day. Thank god for on-demand movies!

We finally got off the ground and the domestic first class is nothing compared to international. No linens, no sleeper seats, but at least you had free drinks!

We landed in Salt Lake, made it to the plane with 10 minutes to spare before boarding (which is better than a lay over of 4 hours) and had to wait another 30 minutes because of an unaccompanied minor. Grrr!

And it stunk to be back in coach seats. Don't they know who I am?

We got into Butte at about 11 and called it a night after a long day of travel. I'll recount the trip tomorrow after a bit of sleep.