Return to Catfordshire-upon-Squirreldel

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 10:15AM, so we had a driver pick us up three hours in advance, to give us plenty of time. It was a good call. Halfway to Heathrow, the traffic came to a dead stop for about half an hour while an accident was cleared. We got to the check in counter five minutes before they would have closed check-in. Cleared security surprisingly quickly- they didn't even make me take off my shoes. Inside the shopping center terminal waiting area was packed with people. No open seats at all. And of course, because it's Heathrow, our flight was delayed an hour.

Heathrow is one of my least favorite airports in the world. The absolute worst, of course, is Dulles in DC, for a variety of reasons I won't go into here. Heathrow is a mess. Way too far from London. The terminals are miles apart from each other, first of all. Secondly, there's not enough seating inside, and you're forced to wander around overpriced luxury goods the entire time. They don't announce your gate until its time to board, which means if youre unlucky enough to be flying on a discount airline where where you line up is how you board, there's a mass stampede to the gate. And about every other flight I've flown out of there has been delayed.

Tay and I enjoyed a bite of breakfast and a coffee at one of the restaurants, as much to sit down as eat, before our number came up.

Our seats weren't bad, actually, although the plane was older. Flying over, we had individual screens with a variety of movies. Maybe a dozen films, starting every twenty minutes or so. I won't mention that OVER 15 YEARS AGO Singapore Airlines offered individual screens with about a hundred movies that could be played, paused, fast forwarded and rewound. The flight back to Chicago had a series of ceiling mounted cathode ray-tube monitors, which showed Arthur and another movie which I completely forgot. It's a long flight. 8 and a half hours, and you really feel each one of them since you're flying with the daylight the entire trip.

Because of the delays getting out of the UK, American put me on an hour later flight out of Chicago. They gave Tay a neon orange expedite pass. It was pretty well organized. We were told on the plane to see the agents in orange vests, and once we got off, we told the agent who we were and they handed us our passes with the new tickets inside. Tay's Expedite pass was like the ExpressPass for the airport. It was amazing. We totally bypassed the immigration line and got to get in the fast lane, which we breezed through. The pass got tay in the fast lane for security screening as well, so between the time we got off the plane and the time we cleared security in a different terminal was less than 20 minutes. Most of that time was waiting for and riding the tram between terminals. It was amazing.

It was kind of sad seeing Tay off at his gate. It was in Chicago that our paths once again diverged. We'd really been traveling together, and pretty much sleeping in the same bed, for almost three weeks. It was really good to be able to spend so much time traveling with my brother.

Got into St.Louis after dark, and my friend Kenny picked me up. His driving skills had really improved since I left my car with him. Of course, the day I'd left him my car was his first day to have a driver's licence, but that's besides the point. I dropped him off at school where he was working, and drove home. When I switched on the radio and some good Mississippi blues came on, I finally felt "I'm home." Back at the house, Suki was thrilled and pissed off to see me. Desperate for attention overload. I cooked and ate some ramen since that was what I had. My roommate had returned from Alaska with some Reindeer sausage and smoked salmon, but I'm saving it for later. My journey was at an end, and a new one begins.