Welcome back to the U S of A

I'm back!!

I have been back in the United States for 12 days exactly! What a change it has been too.

First off, getting back into the country was quite an experience. I landed on time, which was a shock since my flight out of London was delayed half an hour. So I landed in Atlanta at 7:05pm EST. When I got off the plane I had to head straight for customs check, which the line was outrageous! Then to top off the long line, one of the Customs people came over the intercom and announced that they were having computer problems and to bare with them. So a process that could have taken 30 minutes at the most, turned into a 2 hour process! To make matters worse, I had to use the restroom as soon as I got off the plane! OUCH!

I FINALLY got through the first part of the customs check and headed to the baggage claim section. I collected my two LARGE suitcases, my small rolling carry-one, my purse, and my laptop case on a trolley and then was off to the third part of customs. At the third location, I had to hand someone a form declaring all of my purchases. Which took all of 2 minutes. After that, it was off to the final check point where I had to hand back my checked luggage and go through a security check. One thing I didn't know, was that a snow globe has to be in your checked luggage, you can't just carry it in your carry on. Which completely sucked! I had to find an attendant that could write a slip to check my small carry on so I could put the snow globe in it. Urgh!

By this time, I had been up for 19 hours! So I was exhausted and annoyed. Once I checked my carry on, I was then able to go through the security check, which took all of 15-20 minutes. Once I got re-dressed, I headed into the main terminal of the airport, jumped on the subway, and headed to baggage claim.

Finally, after 3+ hours, I was greeted at baggage by my Mom, Mike and my best friend Gin! Which was great! We had to quickly separate to get all my luggage - the two main checked bags were on one side of baggage claim, and the newly checked bag was on the other side.

All my bags were collected and then it was off to the parking garage, then off to the house. When I was finally able to go to bed, I had been up for a straight 24 hours!

Traveling around the World is a great opportunity, but the return is chaotic and stressful, and extremely tiresome!