Home for the holidays

Well we made it.  For awhile yesterday I didn't think we would.  It sure was a trying day and a day of wasting money.
It all started out with a migraine. I was up around 3am throwing up and just suferring thinking my head would break.  Brenda got up around 5:30 and  had coffee then she started getting Turtle ready to be left alone and unplugged for 18 days.  Me on the other hand I was too sick to do much other than whine about the noise.  I don't understand why she couldn't kill the rooster I would have done it for her.

Well around 8:15 Gary (the owner of the park) came and gave us a ride to the bus station.  Gary and his wife Jean are such nice people.  He didn't have to drive us to the bus station that's just the kind of people they are.   Thanks again Gary.   If you are in the Bucerias area stop in Valle de Banderas at the Rancho Altarosa for a few days.    This is a beautiful place we can't wait to explore it some more when we get back.

We forgot our camera and Brenda's blackberry in Mexico...so we have no pictures to share today.   

Anyways back to our trip home.  The bus ride was uneventful for Brenda me.   It was a little bit like torture every Tope we hit I thought my head was going to split and my stomach was not liking it one little bit.   We forgot to bring water, and I was so thirsty I was ready to stop the bus and drink from a tap.  It took about 45 wonderful minutes to get to the airport, the driver let us out right at the front door.   I love theire buses.  So we are at the airport extra early... we think. Ha.   First we find United and there is a sign Today United is Continental.  So this being Mexico that sounded right so we get in line at Continental.  We stood at the front of the line no one ahead of us except a couple of people at the checkin counters.  We stood there waiting and waiting it took 45 minutes for them to get to us.   And Continental was United for the day. We go through customs and then Brenda does some shopping.  Since we didn't check any bags, we had to buy alcohol at the duty free to take home for presents, and she found a snow glob for Maddy my grand daughter.  When she gets back it's already time to get on the plane.  As we approached the airplane they inform us that the plane is too small for carry on bags, and took ours from us.   They gave us a tag, and said to pick them up in Houston from the tarmac outside the plane before we head inside.   hmmmm.   We didn't get seats together so Brenda let me pick the seat I wanted.  Well I'm clausterphobic so I was in shock when I stepped in side and realized they actually made people sit in some kind of a little cigar tube where there wasn't enough air to keep a mouse alive never mind me.   Do you think I had a clausterphobic attack??    Well I did, good thing I had taken a Lorazapam awhile before or I wouldn't  have made it.   After freaking out over which seat I could possibly sit in for 2 hours, I just closed my eyes and passed out.    I was so happy when that trip was over.   Well it was far from over...we land in Houston to do a transfer.  First we had to wait in the hallway outside the plane for our carry-on bags...which they just threw onto the floor....yikes...we had breakables in there, which is one reason people tend to take a carry on..no?    In Houston you don't get off one plane and get on another... NOOOOOOO.. you have to go through customs all over again.   So strange we get on an American plane in Mexico to get on a different American plane in United States.  But you have to go through customs again whats that about.  Anyways we end up in 3 diferrent lines because they kept telling us the wrong one.  Finally we get to customs and they say you can't take alcohol on the plane then they come up with you can't take the snow globs on.   Even though we bought them at duty free after we went through customs.   By this time there was only 5 minutes left of our 2 hour layover...and we hadn't even had a chance to get a drink of water or stop in a washroom!!! So our choices were to drink the alcohol or let them throw it away, and the snow globes were just trashed.  (or whatever it is they do with confiscated items)  We could have had them shipped home but we only had 5 minutes to get to the plane  so everything was trashed.   Then after customs low and behold there is another duty free to buy it all again but we had no time we had to catch a tram to the other terminal then get to our gate and get on the plane. We were the last ones on, and the plane wasn't even half full because every one that had to make a connection had to go through the same hell we did.   More than half missed the plane.  We were lucky thats all I can think it only cost us a couple of bottles of booze and 4 snow globes.   We did manage to get great seats at the exits with extra leg room.  

The best purchase Brenda and I have ever made is a little thing called a Nexus.   $80.00 a piece, basically you get pre-approved for border crossings, and they last for five years, it makes crossing the border between U.S. and Canada quick and painless.   While hundreds of other people were lined up to go through Canadian Customs, Brenda and I walked directly over to the Nexus machine, it scanned our irises and lickedy split we were through customs.    Living in a border town, we use it regularly to cross the border, never have to get in a line up, and never have to answer a pile of questions. 

The drive home from the airport was pleasant for me, I was sitting in the front passenger seat, with lots of legroom, while Brenda's son Adrian drove us home, and Brenda was in her glory in the back seat catching up with our grandson Trent.    Someone was kind enough to order balmy weather for our arrival.   Toronto was having record seasonal highs in temperature.  Bonus!
   
We ended up at home around 11:00 p.m.,  it was a long day and my head didn't split and today I'm not much worse for wear.   I guess if I have to have a migraine, and I have to go through a 15 hour day of travelling on itty bitty claustrophobic inducing airplanes, I might as well do them both in one day!

Now to get ready for Christmas!!!   YAY Christmas shopping!!!  All I can say is I love shopping about as much as I love migraines and flying on itty bitty airplanes.   :)