The Long Road Home

Traveling halfway around the world is not an easy thing. It makes me marvel at our ability to fly and I'm in awe that we can go as far as we can in a day's worth of traveling in a large metal tube.

I left Bali on Thursday, Nov. 10. My flight was at 4:30pm and checkout time at the hotel was noon. So, at noon I used the Grab app to get a car to the airport. There is a lot of tension right now in Bali between the Grab/Uber drivers and the taxis. So, there are a few places where taxis have essentially unioninzed and other drives cannot pick-up in those areas. One of those places is the airport. I'm not exactly sure what can happen to a Grab/Uber driver if they try to do business at one of the forbidden places, but they certainly make an effort to stay away from those locations - but, everything has its price. Right?

When I ordered the Grab the app told me it would be Rp. 90,000 (about $7). However, when the driver contacted me by text he said he was not allowed to go there, but he would take me for Rp. 150,000 (about $11) and I would need to refer to him as my personal driver if anyone asked. No problem! And there was no problem. He got me to the airport and was able to get out of there before anyone said anything to either of us.

I had about an hour before I could check in. So, I wandered around the airport. There wasn't much to see. Once I checked in (my bags were under 40 kilos total - which is what I paid for!) I went through security and simply hung out until my flight left. We were about 30 minutes late leaving the ground and we taxied for a long time in Jakarta. So, we actually didn't get off the flight until about 7pm. The original plan was to land at 5:30pm.

I had arranged for a driver from the hotel to pick me up, but we were so late arriving in Jakarta I think he had left. I wandered around trying to figure out what to do or find someone to talk to who might be able to help me. This was a learning time for me because I was truly the one in a foreign land not understanding the language and not able to find anyone I could communicate with. I'm grateful I have traveled so much or I might have been in a state of panic. Eventually, I was able to communicate with someone who worked at the airport just enough to show her the address of my hotel and was told that it was actually located at Terminal 1. Fabulous! So, I took the shuttle the very long distance to Terminal 1 and quickly found my hotel. HOWEVER, this was another branch of the hotel I had booked and my hotel was actually outside the airport. So, I had to wait for the shuttle come back around and finally ended up at my hotel around 9pm. The room was very small and had no window, but all I needed was a bed - so, I was quite content.

The shuttle only runs every two hours. My flight to Tokyo left at 6:45am - meaning, I had to take the 3am shuttle to the airport. It was a short night, but I was able to sleep for about four and a half hours.

I was flying Japan Airlines to Tokyo and I had been unable to check-in online since the original ticket was purchased through American. My sister had done some stateside research for me and found out JAL doesn't offer seats with extra legroom. When I checked in at the counter at the airport I asked about extra legroom and he said he could put be in an exit row for both the flight to Tokyo (seven hours) and the flight to Dallas (11 hours) - and there would be no additional cost. Bonus! When I found my seat on the airplane I was stunned that I had about five feet of open space in front of me. It was amazing!

The flight from Jakarta to Tokyo was uneventful. I sat next to a man who was flying back to St. Louis, just on the other side of Missouri. I watched two movies - Going in Style and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It was interesting the things I noticed about India in the second movie that I don't think I would have noticed before this experience and I wish I could have watched it with one of my Indian brothers to ask questions. The flight arrived on time in Tokyo.

I didn't have my luggage to deal with in Tokyo. So ,I just had to find the way to my next gate. I didn't have a whole lot of time in between flights. I went straight to my gate, bought some water and a soda and sat for awhile writing on my computer before boarding for Dallas.

I was thrilled, again, when I boarded in Tokyo to find the exit seat for this leg of the trip was just the same as the leg before - lots and lots of legroom. There was quite a lot of turbulence on this flight. It was not enough to make me sick, but it prevented the flight attendants from being able to be in the cabin much. So, we didn't get a whole lot of water during this 11 hour flight and I became very thirsty. I definitely slept during this leg - which is unusual for me - and I am really glad I was able to sleep so much. The flight went by fast and I was not nearly as miserable as I've been on some flights. Unfortunately, the plane left Tokyo about 30 minutes late and wasn't able to make up any of the time. So, we arrived in Dallas late and many of us missed our connecting flights, including me.

The airline was prepared, however, and had already reserved seats for those of us with tight connections on the next available flights to our destinations and had vouchers waiting for us when we deplaned. From getting off the plane I went through customs - which is much easier than it used to be, but the line was still really long. Then I had to gather my luggage to go through immigration and there was a long wait for luggage and a long line for immigration. After I got through immigration I was able to drop my bags off to check them through to Kansas City. But, I still had to go through a new security checkpoint - with another long line - and by this point I knew I wasn't going to make my original connecting flight.

Once I got through security I took my time because I had about three hours before my flight. I talked to a nice man who works at the airport about football (oh, how I've missed that game) Then, I went to a little bar and watched football on the TV while eating some glorious beef nachos smothered in cheese. They tasted SO good.

For the final leg for my trip - the one I had to be rebooked for - I was in the very last row of the plane. I actually didn't mind because it was quiet, there was no one sitting next to me and I could try to sleep to make the time go faster. The flight was just a little over and hour, but I was so tired and so physically miserable by this point I just wanted to be home.

I was near the last one off the plane and as soon as I saw Steve I started crying some little tears. He was waiting for me with a huge Jones smile on his face, a bouquet of roses and my coat. We caught up while waiting for luggage and during the ride home (for which he had a blanket waiting for me in the car). As soon as we got home I greeted Lewis - who was excited to see me, but more so wanted to go potty. He was still super excited that all three of us were together, again, and he's barely left my side since I've gotten home. We arrived at the house in time to see the last quarter of the Oklahoma game - which we won and for which I could barely stay awake for - and by 11pm I was in bed.

If my calculations are correct from the time I left Bali to arriving in Kansas City I traveled for 47 hours. That is a miserable amount of time to travel, but the past five weeks was totally worth every second of it.

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