Day 27

The last day of the trip. We got everything packed up and ready to go, and went down to breakfast. The car was due to pick us up at 8:55, and we were concerned that they'd come to the right place. TCS assured us on Friday they had our arrangements correct, but the sheet they gave us said we were going to be picked up at the Dorchester rather than the Rubens. But we brought our bags down about 8:30 and hoped for the best. The guy showed up right on time, but only had Sam's name. We weren't about to let him go with Sam and hope someone else showed up for us, though, and he didn't blink an eye at having two more passengers. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We had worried our bags would be overweight, but the lady at check-in didn't say anything and we just headed upstairs to the waiting area. We had quite a bit of British money still, and Jan can't stand for that so I spent a little on a couple of T-shirts and a key chain and then she took over and spent the rest. By the time she was finished, our flight had its gate assignment so we headed over there. There weren't many people at the gate, and as it turns out the flight was less than half full. That was OK with us. Plenty of room in the overhead bins and if he had wanted to, Sam could have laid down across the four seats in the middle section to sleep. He wasn't that relaxed, though, and sat up for the whole flight. They only showed two movies, "Get Smart" and "The Devil Wears Prada". It was an Ann Hathaway mini-festival I guess. They also showed several CBS shows. I'm sure it's nice for them to have a captive audience. Anyway, the flight was just a little bumpy in spots, but otherwise uneventful. When we got to RDU, there was a long line at passport control and only two officers to process everyone. There was one line for US citizens and resident aliens and another for foreign passport holders. The two lines were pretty even, but our guy was processing all of the flight crew people first. That didn't seem quite fair unless they were trying to make another flight, and I'm willing to bet they weren't. After passport control, we went down to Customs. We made our report of the things we bought, expecting to have to pay the import duties, they x-rayed our bags, and then said "Thank you, through that door please". That door led out to the terminal. So we got a cab and headed home. Everything was pretty much as we left it except that the house was covered in leaves. We dragged our stuff into the house and started getting settled back in. I'm just a little sad that I'll never be in the TCS jet with Rhys and Julie and Gail and Ann and Chris and Rachel and everyone again, but as Dorothy said, there's no place like home.

The End.