"Modern Travel, An Olympic Event" - Time Out #153

Who would have thought traveling through Planet Earth would be a major undertaking? We are well-aware the planning part of an upcoming vacation event is extremely thought-provoking. However, that part is nothing compared with the physical part of actually going somewhere, and returning from that somewhere.

Case in point, my bride, Debbie, and my recent cruising adventure round trip to Rome. The going there part was exciting, but somewhat long. The return trip might make the proverbial Guinness Book of World Records. How so you ask?

My bride and I experienced a 27-hour travel day, dear readers of Our Town and far beyond.

After an absolutely wonderful 10-day/ 7-port stops cruise aboard the huge Celebrity Reflection through the Eastern Mediterranean, we woke up on the return home travel day at 6 a.m. Rome time. Because my lady is the world's most efficient packer, Ms. Debbie had prepared for our ship disembarkation process 2 days ahead of time, She certainly has made life on-board much easier for me during our 72 previous cruises, with her organizational skills. I am so grateful to her. Once again, she is the BEST!

We were loaded, and off in a full motor coach, bound for the international Rome airport, about an hour ride east from the docked mega-size cruise vessel. Once we arrived at the chaotic Rome airport and checked our luggage with our British Airways (BA) carrier, it was mid-morning there. Our initial, non-stop flight to London Heathrow Airport was delayed, so the BA ticket agent placed us on another flight so we would be able to make our connecting flight to the USA. Once in London, we had to go through security again, since we had arrived in the United Kingdom from Italy. Going through airport security anywhere is almost never an easy task, unless, of course, it is through our local TSA folks at Stillwater Regional Airport. They make the necessary process so nice, easy and fast!

Now we are on flight leg #2 of our journey homeward, an 8-plus hour flight over the North Atlantic pond on a BA A380 jet, the world's largest aircraft. This is the first time we had flown in one of these massive aircraft. The flight was uneventful, code for 3 full-length movies viewed by my bride and lots of postcard writing by your humble correspondent.

Arriving at terminal 5 in giant Chicago O'Hare Airport, we had only a little over an hour to pass through US Immigration, claim our checked luggage, pass through US Customs, recheck our luggage to our domestic carrier, American Airlines, then travel outside via a 15-minute bus to terminal 3. Once inside Terminal 3, we had to pass through a new TSA security check, then walk a considerable distance to our departure gate for our Oklahoma City Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) destination gate. This was leg #3 of our seemingly endless flight marathon.

We made our departure gate with plenty of time to spare. However, once we loaded onto the small regional jet, we were delayed out of O'Hare for over an hour due to a maintenance issue. That entire hour, the fully-loaded aircraft sat at the departure gate before we pushed away at 9:30 pm Chicago/Stillwater time, 4:30 am Rome time.

Two hours later, our jet's wheels touched down at OKC, and after a 30-minute delay getting our luggage, we drove our truck out of a remote parking lot, and began heading to Our Town around 12:30 am. Needless to say, late on a Monday night, the traffic on I-35 headed north, then SH 51 headed east, was sparse at best.. To tell you we were super glad when we turned on our home street about 1:30 am is, of course, a gross understatement. A brief unloading our travel luggage was carried out through our front doors. while I also thought about kissing our home floor. The floor kissing didn't happen; I was simply too tired.

Our heads hit our favorite pillows about 2 am; that was 9 am Rome time, i.e., we had a 27-hour travel day.

Since we've returned home, I have checked our mail everyday for an Olympic gold medal for one-day continuous travel duration, but no medal has yet arrived?

Oh, well, I KNOW, in my mind's eye, we won a gold one for that day!