.....and no, the two million francs weren't the bar tab. That was room, meals, laundry and an occasional ice cream sundae.
The trip back was long, long, long but relatively uneventful. I did have a 2 1/2 holdover at Paris because of the blizzard that's going on in Europe right now. Trains are shut down and lots of airports are also closed. I felt lucky to get out at all--even if it was late. Some poor people had been waiting there for four days trying to get into Newark/New York area or anywhere else close to it. With the blizzard in the U.S. northeast, they weren't able to get out or in. And Continental was offering to fly them south to places like Atlanta for a $600 fee with no guarantees they'd be able to connect north to New York before Christmas. Airlines are worse than bankers or lawyers in my opinion.
After we taxied out onto the runway, they had to bring up spray trucks and de-ice the entire airplane before we could take off. We probably spent 30-40 minutes sitting there and the snow was just blanketing everything. They were big, huge snowflakes and so thick you could hardly see the trucks outside the windows. While we were sitting there, you could literally see the snow accumulating in front of us on things like the runway lights. As much as I hate cold weather and snow, there is something magical about watching snow fall through the window of a warm room. Magical, at least, so long as you don't have to go outside into it!
Someone once wrote that you can tell the state of the economy by how loud the Texans are shooting off their mouths and bragging. The better the economy, the louder they talk (especially the oil field economy.) Well, I think the U.S. economy has, in fact, turned the corner and things are getting better. One of the last things I saw before I left Cameroon was the baggage screening equipment before I boarded the plane. On the X-ray machine, right over the conveyor belt, someone had pasted a bumper sticker announcing: "Don't Mess With Texas."
God, it's good to be home again.....Merry Christmas to all.
The trip back was long, long, long but relatively uneventful. I did have a 2 1/2 holdover at Paris because of the blizzard that's going on in Europe right now. Trains are shut down and lots of airports are also closed. I felt lucky to get out at all--even if it was late. Some poor people had been waiting there for four days trying to get into Newark/New York area or anywhere else close to it. With the blizzard in the U.S. northeast, they weren't able to get out or in. And Continental was offering to fly them south to places like Atlanta for a $600 fee with no guarantees they'd be able to connect north to New York before Christmas. Airlines are worse than bankers or lawyers in my opinion.
After we taxied out onto the runway, they had to bring up spray trucks and de-ice the entire airplane before we could take off. We probably spent 30-40 minutes sitting there and the snow was just blanketing everything. They were big, huge snowflakes and so thick you could hardly see the trucks outside the windows. While we were sitting there, you could literally see the snow accumulating in front of us on things like the runway lights. As much as I hate cold weather and snow, there is something magical about watching snow fall through the window of a warm room. Magical, at least, so long as you don't have to go outside into it!
Someone once wrote that you can tell the state of the economy by how loud the Texans are shooting off their mouths and bragging. The better the economy, the louder they talk (especially the oil field economy.) Well, I think the U.S. economy has, in fact, turned the corner and things are getting better. One of the last things I saw before I left Cameroon was the baggage screening equipment before I boarded the plane. On the X-ray machine, right over the conveyor belt, someone had pasted a bumper sticker announcing: "Don't Mess With Texas."
God, it's good to be home again.....Merry Christmas to all.
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