Homecoming!

May 13, 2002-A Day At Schipol

Our day started at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam where we were pulled out of line for special handling since we were traveling to the U.S. We were directed in an around-about way to our new queue. In their effort for special check-ins to the U.S., they enabled us to miss one entire security check of our luggage. Not to worry, there were plenty more. Security in general seemed a bit more relaxed than other places we’d been. I don’t think that the Dutch have enemies. They were the only place where we saw lockers still in use.

Since we were at the airport so early, I had time to read the newspaper. I mentioned a political candidate in The Netherlands, Pim Fortuyn, who’d been murdered. I read more about him today and learned he was killed by a left-winger. Fortuyn’s soft views on the environment and his strong stand to limit immigration to The Netherlands were the reasons for the incident. The fact that he was an openly gay candidate was a total non-issue. How about that? It’s a country where gays are bashed and killed for reasons other than being gay. Now that’s equality! Equal rights for gays, etc. have been a part of law there since 1811. How far behind the times does that put us?

We also had time to do our email. There was a nice complex with state of the art technology, but they didn’t have computers where we could copy from a floppy. They did, however, have plugs and phone jacks where we could use our laptop and their ISP to do our thing. It was really very convenient and efficient. The last time we were in Amsterdam was in 1974. I remember not having any extra time at check-in and wanting to buy Vandermint liqueur at the Duty Free Shop. We made a mad dash to buy it and just got to the plane in time to find out that our entire group of fifteen had been bumped. We still have that bottle of Vandermint and realize it would have been cheaper to buy it at home.

The Amsterdam flight had mechanical trouble and we were sitting in the plane on the ground for 1-½ hours while they fixed it. There was a problem with the fire extinguishing system. It was my opinion that we should take off on time and just not create a situation where we’d need to use the system. The pilot must have disagreed. He said he could make up ½ hour in the air and that really cut it close for our Detroit-Cleveland connection. We ended up with only fifty minutes to go through immigration, customs, security, and recheck our luggage.

Once we got off the ground, the flight from Amsterdam itself was smooth as silk. It was a new plane, a MD-11. It had better legroom and aisle space than we were used to. The seats also seemed to have a more comfortable shape that fit our bodies well. Flying cattle class for 8-9 hours is never fun, but this was better than most. I also find I do better on a long haul when I fly during daylight hours. There were a few nice little extras like free liqueurs and ice-cream snacks. One curiosity was that it was the only flight where the knife we were given with dinner was plastic. The other utensils were stainless steel. They must still be ultra sensitive on flights to the U.S. The plane wasn’t very full and it was amusing to see how people jockeyed for the seat-switch after take-off. I lucked out and got an end seat in a four-seat row with only two people in it. That gave David an empty middle seat in a three-seat row. It really made it so much more comfortable for our fifth airline formatted video viewing of Ocean’s Eleven.

Re-Entry

After the smoothest landing of all our flights, we braced ourselves for our first the sight of armed soldiers in a U.S. airport. It was a disquieting image that we had. We’d gotten used to automatic weapons being toted through airports around the world but never at home. There was not one when we arrived. We later found out they’d been recalled that day.

Evidently we landed with time to spare. We had time enough for each of us to be separately singled out and thoroughly searched. David was sidelined after customs and had to take his shoes off. He was carrying our roll-aboard case with all our meds and cosmetics. They opened everything and were the only ones in forty-three security checks to find a sewing kit I’d never used. It had a pair of scissors that they actually allowed. The tips were dull and the blades were very short. After we threw our stuff back into the case and David regained control of his shoes, we were off to the races and the gate. Low and behold, I was pulled aside at the entrance to the walkway to the plane. This time I was schlepping the roll-aboard. They frisked me, ran a metal detector over me, had me remove my shoes, checked the bottom of my feet with the metal detector, and searched the case. I also had the computer. I had to open it up to show them the screen. I don’t know what they could tell from that, but one of the guards got real chatty about the computer since she’d just bought one. I didn’t care since I was in the home stretch and could see the door to the plane. They also passed on the scissors.

U.S. of A

This was the first flight in nine months where we didn’t have to fill out immigration forms. Tears welled up when I heard the announcement. We were returning citizens. That had such a nice ring to it. When we filled out the customs declaration form, we didn’t have enough room to list all the countries we’d been to. I felt so fortunate. I got teary again. As we approached Detroit, we came through a mass of thick, dark clouds. We gradually lost altitude and I knew that the next glimpse of ground would be the United States. The words of the song My Country ‘Tis of Thee began to play in my head as I wept. Do you see a pattern developing here? It would have been too corny to kiss the ground when we deplaned, but I did feel like hugging the immigration official when I thanked him for stamping our passports. We were officially home! We’d been duly counted, recorded, and admitted back into the best place in the world to live. I can pretty well say that with some authority now.

It took all of twenty-two minutes flying time to get to Cleveland. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I saw Daniel, a very pregnant Vikki, and Alex waiting for us. I didn’t know whom to hug first so I called out, “Group Hug!” and we formed a tidy huddle of arms, legs, kisses, and embraces. It felt so good to see them in the flesh. They were energizing. I wasn’t tired any more. I was still flying high, but this time I was high on adrenaline. Alex grew about three inches and is looking like a real pre-teen. Her silky blond hair is long now and plays a big part in her transformation. She looks like a colt adjusting to its ever-changing body and is becoming accustomed to it with grace and confidence. Vikki is gorgeous. I think she wears pregnancy with a regal air. She’s tall and filled out in all the right places. She radiates optimistic hope for new life and the secret of creation. Daniel looks like the stereotypical proud and expectant papa. He seemed happy to bask in the excitement of his family and the reunion.

A Tally

Coming home was everything I expected and more. For David it was an end of a dream of a lifetime. For me there was a lot of relief we actually made it. We hadn’t gotten terribly sick. David had pretty much recovered from a bit of Delhi-belly and it seems that the water in S. Africa is not all that wonderful. We both had problems after we left. We didn’t have to use the syringes or the suture kits we were carrying. I didn’t lose or tear a contact lens. David’s glasses didn’t break. We didn’t lose our passports and we weren’t robbed or mugged. We didn’t happen to be in areas where there were riots or terrorist attacks. The weather was mostly good in our travels and when it wasn’t, at least it didn’t stop us. Although we dropped the computer twice and got viruses on the floppy a few times, the computer is still alive and healthy. We never lost any luggage or missed a flight. Except for our flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, we never had a flight that was delayed so that we were in danger of missing a connection. None of our planes crashed. Our flights were smooth and we managed to avoid flying in bad weather. When you consider that we had a total of forty-three flights in nine months that’s pretty amazing. We slept in sixty-three beds along the way and drove nine different automobiles. We were in ten countries by last count and on all but two continents. (See next blog for details)

Toby