My best friend of 21 years had a baby in May. I’ve been able to document his progress from birth to now. I don’t have children myself, but I do enjoy my time around my nieces and nephews and to see them grow into wonderful human beings makes me happy. I’ve tried to have as much of a positive influence on them to be good people! They call me Auntie JoJo and I love it. Today Jackson celebrates three months since he made his arrival into this world.

Sitting here on the bed as we get ready to leave, I have a mixture of emotions. Glad to be heading home to my family and pups but sad to end this wonderful experience in Spain I just had.
We enter a Tesla Uber and what a beautiful car! We hoped to be able to grab one of these while on our journey. The driver, Roger, is very friendly and tells us of his backstory escaping from Cuba, attacked by sharks, and incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay. What!!!
Arriving at the terminal, I say a little prayer for uneventful flights back to the states, unlike our journey here.

One thing I’ve noticed while in Spain, the people wear their wedding rings on the right hand. I’ve also learned to always wait on the right side on escalators because the left side is used for people in a hurry and you will get run over!

The entrance through the airport to our gate is crazy! Nobody has any spacial awareness. Everyone crams on top of each other and that causes me to panic. Especially since our friend was robbed two days ago. I’m more aware of my things and people trying to get into your bags as they bump. We finally arrive to our gate with an hour to spare. We are headed home!

On the plane there are children all around us and I pray that they sleep but for now they are very cranky so we see what happens. This is a much bigger plane than we flew from Charlotte to Madrid.

There really doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to things as people just shove onboard and go back and forth to their seats which makes for a very frustrating beginning. At least we are in our seats but the screaming children begin like a chorus to our left, front and back and not a very good chorus. At this point there’s no escaping the wailing so on go the headphones.
Adios Madrid vamos a Boston!

Boston to DC proves to be our last hurdle and hurdle it is.

The captain comes out to explain that the plane’s computer is being reset and doesn’t know how long that will take.

Our plane is supposed to take off in 8 minutes and no one has boarded the flight yet. We’ll see how long this takes. So close and yet so far away from home. I just want a shower and to be home with my husband and pups at this point.

Only a 13 minute delay so all is good. We board our final flight of this trip and at 6:30 we are taking off! Home, sweet home.

A little turbulence hit us through New York and D.C. but we finally make it.

Well, we’re not out of the woods yet.

One last snag, they lost our bag.

No big deal at this point because I look at the two travelers in front of us who are at the baggage claim desk freaking out. This couple from Spain just arrived in the U.S. and due to a language barrier they are having difficulty understanding the concierge and the concierge is having a difficult time relaying information. So my current situation doesn’t seem so bad. My husband says I should step in and help, so I did. Those five years of Spanish are really testing my knowledge at this point with this conversation and 10 days previous in Madrid and Barcelona but we make it through. They leave with an understanding of how to claim their bags and so do we.

All is right with the universe. We head to the car in the economy parking and finally make our last leg home. As Simon and Garfunkel sang “Homeward Bound” and I can’t wait to be.

And to that dear readers I say goodnight. It has been fun and worthwhile going on this journey together. At times it proved trying to complete this daily task but I’m glad I saw it through. Now I have a beautiful momento to look back on years to come and a vacation for you folks to take all from your living rooms.

Buenas Noches!

(Update: We received our bag Sunday night at 7pm with everything intact.)

I wish I could say dear readers that I went out with a bang on the last day however, I lay my head down nursing an upset stomach, small fever, and body aches. I think I have food poisoning.
As I lay in this bed I can hear Spanish speakers all around me in their apartments and wish I could go out one more time. My wonderful husband goes to search for ginger ale and saltines because at this point that’s all I want. Trying to get well before the long flight ahead of us tomorrow, I lay down and try to get some sleep to start feeling better.