Flights Home
I checked my email before going to bed last night, to find one from from my mucker JV asking if I could get him a specific digital camera. With only a few hours left in the country, it seemed unlikely.
In the morning we got a quick complimentary breakfast at the hotel, then checked the CVS pharmacy next door for this miracle hangover vaccine. They didn't have it, and they told us it was just aspirin and caffeine "and stuff", and that it's not magic...
With three hours before we needed to return the car, we went looking for a bookshop and somewhere that might sell digital cameras, preferably next door to each other. This we did with some success: a Circuit City and a Borders sharing the same car park.
The man at Circuit City claimed that someone with the same accent as me had phoned up that very morning asking for the exact same model camera. He also told us they didn't have it. We'd have liked to have carried on searching, but time was short.
We bought some aeroplane reading -- a few novels, and "American History at a Glance" -- then braved the Atlanta traffic to the airport car rental return area. On the way we hit our 2000th mile of the holiday. We bid a tearful farewell to the car that had served us so well, then boarded the shuttle to the check-in desks.
I'm sure there is no point documenting the minutae of air travel. Highlights follow:
I wasn't challenged by airport security, so it appears that the scissor incident didn't leave a black mark against my name. Debbie set off the metal detector, and was asked to remove her belt. She forgot to pick it up on our way out, and getting back into the security check area was more hassle than we could face. One of Alabama's unclaimed baggage sales will have an extra belt one of these days.
I allowed myself to get uncharacteristically irritated by the bloody stupid people sharing our flight. Especially the teacher who, having drunk 4 185ml bottles of wine, was surprised to discover that she was unable to get out of an economy aeroplane seat while carrying a trayful of food in one hand, without spilling.
Also, I overheard a flight attendant saying ".. but Ireland is part of the UK, isn't it?"
My understanding of American history is much improved. The historical significance of some of the places we visited in the last 2 weeks is now apparent to me. It might have been nice to have read about all this beforehand.