Epilogue

Trip Start Jun 20, 2009

Trip End Aug 01, 2009

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Where I stayed

My House

(Durham hotels)

Flag of United States Durham, North Carolina
Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I woke up at 6:00 in the morning to leave for home. I had packed all my stuff up the previous night, so I was ready to go. Of course, I had stayed up until around 2:00 in the morning to pack up all of that stuff, but at least I was ready. I went out with a friend to McDonald's for an early breakfast, and then caught an 8:00 bus to London Heathrow. The bus had wi-fi, so I checked the weather in Atlanta. My flying buddies and I had originally been scheduled to fly back in through JFK, but our itineraries had changed after the whole "entire day layover" fiasco. Now we were flying back in to Atlanta, certainly a much better-designed and better-located airport, weather-wise.

My handheld device told me that there was currently rain over Atlanta. However, it was 3:00am in Atlanta and I had a nine-hour flight. I wasn't concerned. We arrived at the airport after about 40 minutes and then I walked around for a couple of hours until our gate was announced

Farewell, Oxford

. We were actually there so early our gate wasn't even open yet. On the plus side, I got to browse around the duty-free store, which had enormous, delicious-looking bags of candy and bottles of booze. I had an airport lunch, and right before our plane left around 1:20, I won a free can on Pimm's & Lemonade from the Duty-Free store, which I enjoyed on the flight as my last legal underage drink.

Everything was running smoothly, except I was stuck next to a complaining old British woman who I gave my aisle seat, and I only slept for a couple of hours. However, that same British woman got me a free beer from the airline cart, so I can't really complain. Like I said, everything was running smoothly until we got to Atlanta. Apparently, 14 hours later, there was still a storm over Atlanta International Airport, bad enough for them to refuse landings. We circled around three times and then flew to Knoxville, Tennessee to refuel. Since the Knoxville airport was not an international airport, and has no customs, that for some reason meant we couldn't get off of the plane. You know, in case someone had gold bullion in their carry-on.

Anyways, after an hour or so, we were able to fly back into Atlanta by around 8:30pm. Fortunately, my connecting flight, which had originally been set to depart at around 8:00pm, had also been delayed, until about 10:00pm

The Duty-Free Store

. I waited for a while in a check-in line, waited a while for my luggage, and then dashed off to the correct terminal to catch the plane. I grabbed an overpriced sandwich and hurried to my gate, only to discover the flight had been delayed again until 12:10am. I waited, dejected, but I when I finally boarded the plane (which left at about 1:00am) I was grateful that the flight wasn't canceled and that I would finally be home. I arrived at 2:30am, met my mom, and then got to bed by 3. I had spent over 24 hours traveling, with about 3 hours of sleep.

Needless to say, it took a few days for my batteries to recharge and to get re-adjusted. Unfortunately, I didn't have a few days. I had to start moving into my new apartment, see my girlfriend, unpack, and then pack again for Texas. I'm waking up bright and early tomorrow (5:45am) to go to see my father in Waxahachie, Texas. I'll be there until August 19, after which point I'll complete my move in to my apartment, and then begin classes in six days, on the day after my birthday. It will have been quite a summer.

Thanks for staying with me, and happy travels!

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