The rest of the way home

I do apologize. I had every intention of writing a couple of posts while I was home, but it turned into quite a marathon of appointments, doctor visits, dental work, yardwork and landscaping! Dana and I only went to see one movie (Captain America: the Winter Soldier; I recommend it!), but we did hit most of my favorite restaurants!

What follows then is a description of the rest of my trip home, and some images I took along the way and at home. Most of this was written enroute on my iPad with the hope of posting blogs along the way, but I haven't found a way to upload images from the iPad to the blog server.

We arrived at Toronto after an uneventful flight, and I learned that I'd missed my American flight to DFW, but was rebooked and pre-checked in on a later Air Canada flight. All I had to do was get through immigration, collect my bag, go to get a boarding pass, go through security, and get to the gate. No problem, eh?

Well, yeah, of course there was on a Pirate day. Arrrrrr! After doing all of the above I got to the Air Canada desk to get my boarding pass 45 minutes before departure, only to be told that I could go, but couldn't check my bag since it was less than an hour from takeoff.  Aaarrrgghhh! Another good plan shot down!

At this point there was only one obvious choice - give in. I got the Air Canada agent to rebook me for the first flight out in the morning, then went to find the Emirates counter. The very nice gentleman behind the counter set me up for he night at the airport Sheraton hotel with dinner and breakfast vouchers, and started work on arranging a flight from DFW to XNA late afternoon the next day.

I checked into the hotel and it was great - the most quiet airport hotel I've experienced.  I never heard a sound all night! The room was great, and after letting Dana know about the plans I went down for dinner and enjoyed a terrific steak. BTW, if you want a taste of scotch and it isn't on the menu, ASK the price before ordering. I paid as much for a double Chivas as I did for my steak, and could've bought a bottle for that price. Silly.

Afterwards I went to the spa for a massage, which was badly needed. I've had a painful kink in my neck for weeks, and haven't found anything to take care of it, but it is amazingly all better this morning. The Chinese lady who worked on me, Angela, was brutally effective. It hurt. But she got to the root areas which were tied in knots and got them worked out. I woke up pain free for the first time in a month! Oh, so nice!

This was a long, long day.

Day two
I ended up getting close to seven hours of sleep, and got up rested and ready to go and on the local time. Check in and all was quick and easy this morning, and I am now halfway to Dallas, and will have a couple of hours before my XNA flight. 


We just flew over a small town, Mountainberg, a few miles from home! It was very easy to identify from the dam and reservoir that were completed a few years ago. From there it was nice to follow up the road and see Fayetteville in the distance! No details but lovely to see it from here. It's nice to be at 30,000 ft. The flight is smooth with just a little chop, and it's a pretty day!

On the ground at Dallas it felt  nice to be one step closer to home. There were two slightly surreal moments. On the train from the arrival terminal we went by the International terminal, and parked there was an Emirates B777 that I should've been on 24 hours ago, and that if I'd taken their first offer in Dubai I'd have come in on today.  Then, walking past a Chilis on the concourse, one of the TVs was showing the Bahrain Formula 1 auto race that I could've attended if I wasn't coming home!

The flight from DFW to XNA must surely have set a record of some kind. Maybe the pilot needed to pee, or his girlfriend was waiting, or something, but it felt like the throttle barely left the MAX setting until touchdown. With a departure  time of 1345, we pushed from the gate at 1340 - i cant remember the last time a flight left the gate on time, much less early! 

Even taxiing for takeoff it seemed we were going pretty quick; not unsafe, just rapid. As we approached the runway I could see a jet on final approach but we didn't slow down. I could imagine the clearance from the tower: "American 123, you are cleared for takeoff, expedite departure for landing traffic." We made a quick turn onto the runway with the throttles advancing, so by the time we were aligned with the runway it was a quick advance to takeoff power and we were almost off the ground, with liftoff at 1350! The published flight time from Dallas to northwest Arkansas is 1+05 hours. Today, from takeoff to parked at the XNA gate took 46 minutes! Wow! Reminds me of my days flying fast jets! 

It has always been wonderful to get home from a trip, and returning from a long overseas deployment is even better, let me tell you! And to come home to NWA from Saudi Arabia is like coming back to color! More on the that in my next post, but as a preview above is a shot of an oak tree ready to leaf out under a beautiful blue sky, and here is my favorite shot of Darby and Nyima who came to see me!