Day 19: Homeward Bound

Ah, our Appalachian Trail journey is over.  It always amazes me how slow a trip starts out and then before you know it, it's over.  We felt like we had so much time out here and poof, gone.

We started out with breakfast at a great little diner in town.  We ran into Uncle Charles at the Post Office.  You could tell he was a little nervous but a lot excited to get out on the trail solo.  Tootsie was able to give him the remainder of her Hot Springs gift card for him to use at the mineral bath.  He was very excited for that!!!

The only place for breakfast in Hot Springs

We got picked up around 10:30am and made it to the airport by 11:15am.  We were wanting lunch but the only restaurant in the Asheville airport was closed.  This should have been our sign that our trip home would not be the easiest!!!!!  So, accustomed to walking now, we walked outside the airport to some restaurants and got back to the airport in plenty of time.

We hit Charlotte with about 30 minutes until we boarded our next flight to Seattle.  Upon reading the departure boards, we saw that our flight was a hour delayed.  No problem!! We wondered around and got to our gate to see that we were now delayed 2.5 hours.  Still, nothing to worry about as we had a lengthy delay in Seattle before our Anchorage flight.  So, we settled in at a bar, got a bite and people watched.  I never knew Charlotte was such a big airport!!

Finally, we get on our flight.  Only to be told our plane is grounded and we all need to deplane.  Not fun.  I get on the phone with American to see what they can do for us and they come up with a crazy route but what could we do?  We just wanted to get home!!!  So, in checking in for our new flight to Phoenix, the check in guy was incredulous at our booking.  He had never seen such a ridiculous routing then what we had.  He ended up changing us to direct to Chicago, an almost 9 hour layover and then the 6 hour flight home.  Not great but better.

We then got some dinner and waited.  And waited.  Finally on board, we fall asleep immediately, only to be told that we are getting in 40 minutes early!!!  The one time we don't want to be early!!!  For any of you that have been at the Chicago airport from midnight to 9 am, you will know 2 things.  1- they keep the temperature just above freezing!!!  Poor Tootsie had flip flops on and was so cold she couldn't even cat nap.  She ended up winning some socks in a vending machine and that helped some.  2- nothing opens until 5 am!!!!!  Such a long night!!

Anyway, we switched to Alaska Airlines (the only carrier to take in our opinion), left on time and got home to Anchorage early.  A 32 hour ride home, but home at last.

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