Their and back again
The October surprise
We left the Island of Capri at 5:30 pm. Mary and I was both tired from the long bus ride down to Naples, and from our fantastic tour of Capri. On the way back across the Tiberian Sea the warm Mediterranean sun was caressing my face. That along with the fresh sea air I was nodding off in and out of sleep. Much to my surprise our bus was there at the port when we got back to Naples. After some time spent in the city’s traffic we where heading north again to Rome.
Our Italian bus driver was a chatty guy named Angelo, he had a uncanny resemblance
to Ron Jeromy the porn star, and he could talk really loud about something for
along time. I was never really sure what the guy was talking about on our 6-hour
bus ride back home, but I think it had something to do with his girl friend
kicking him out of the house.
Our tour guide was a very nice Italian girl whose name was Roberta.
She could speak French, Spanish, and English very well. But what really intrigued
me was the way her Italian accent would flow through her English. She had a
way of making something very plane sound very nice. And she always talked with
a pleasant smile.
At first Roberta would make small talk with our bus driver but after
about a hour of listening to him complain really loudly she tried not to speak
to him any more. It was getting late and we where in a traffic jam just outside
of Rome and the bus driver was still in a rant. Mary and I where trying to catch
a little sleep. But Angelo’s rant was keeping us up.
It was after 11:00pm when we made it back to Rome. I wanted to get
off the cursed bus and get a taxi back to our hotel. But Mary told me to calm
down and it would not take long. So after 45 minuets of driving around in a
cercal we finally made it back to our Hotel. We had a late night pizza at a
little restaurant around the corner then retired to our room. We were expecting
a 5am wake up call. So we would only be getting 4 hours sleep before the 23-hour
trip back home.
Our wake up call came late, at 5:30am. But with the Roman’s we
were lucky they remembered to call us at all. We left the hotel at 6:15 made
it to the airport at 7:00am and were on our plane at 7:30. We had a small problem
of checking our baggage in. I had bought an antique golf club a few days ago
and it would not fit in my luggage. So I checked it in separately and that was
the last time I ever saw it.
When we arrived in Paris we had a 4-hour lay over. So we had our last
French meal at the airport and waited patiently for our plane. We were still
tired from our bus ride the night before and Mary was getting a little cranky.
A light moment came however while we had just finished our food we could hear
an older American lady complain about the service she was getting. This is what
the French call the ugly American.
We finally boarded our plane and was being pushed back away from the
terminal when the captain came on the speaker and told us that they where going
to be delayed because they would have to restack the luggage. Apparently it
was to heavy on one side of the plane. This mad our plane 45 minuets late taking
off and about 30 minuets late arriving. We had a cranky old man setting in front
of us and I had Mary setting bedside me still feeling sick from the short plane
ride from Italy. So I passed the time away reading my Benjamin Franklin book.
When we arrived in Boston we had all kinds of problems. We where going
to have to hurry to catch our plane to St.Louis. We finally made our way through
customs, found all of our bag’s except my golf club of course, rechecked
our bags back in, found the bus taking us to the correct terminal, went back
through security, and with me running through the airport with no belt, or shoe’s
on made our plane just as it was getting ready to pull away. However just as
we sat down in our small plane seats the captain came on the intercom and told
us that we were going to be delayed for about 2 hours while they fix the planes
broken down transponder. All of that running for nothing.
So we went back out of the airport called home to let every one know
what has happened. We got us our first American food in 9 day’s, and then
went back through Logan security for the last time. This delay would put us
in Jerseyville around midnight. It would make our trip back home a exhausting
25 strait hours. I find it impossible to sleep on a plane, but I was so tired
that I fell asleep during take off from Boston. Mary did the same. When she
awoke she thought we had been asleep for several hours but unfortunately it
was only about 45 minuets. She was tired and cranky so I did not argue with
her. Finally we touched down in St. Louis and we where close to being back home.
I was so tired that I don’t really remember much about the Airport
in St. Louis. I do remember running into and seeing a good friend from Jerseyville,
Anita Rose was waiting for a plane carrying Paul and Rod back home from Canada.
I can’t rally remember what we talked about, by this time I had tunnel
vision and the only thing that was on my mind was getting into my king size
memory foam bed and sleeping a good 8 or 10 hours.
Our Driver met us at carousel one where we discovered that we had another bag missing. This time I was alarmed because the missing luggage had 4 bottles of French wine in it. So we went home with out it, however it did show up the next day. We opened up the door of our home thanked Mary’s sister Jennifer for all that she had done for us while we were away, slip under the covers of our giant king size bed and went to sleep right away. It was nice to be home.
The October Surprise
Mary and I had much fun over the next few weeks in giving out souvenirs that we had bought for our friends and loved ones. I began to write my travel journals and we both started right away in getting back to a normal life. Cory was delighted with his Trebuchet book, and he still does not know it is written in French, I had many people comment on the many pictures we took and on my travel Journals as a whole.
Every thing was beginning to get back to normal except for one thing. Mary was
still feeling sick from the long journey. So around the first of October she
decided to go to the doctor to see what else it could be. Well it turns out
that Mary was not suffering from travel sickness after all, but it was more
like morning sickness. Mary is pregnant and it seams that life will not be getting
back to normal for a very long time.
Hmm maybe this will give me an opportunity to write some more? I wonder if Mary
will let me take pictures? You know a birth journal. Well maybe not!
The End!