Oman 2009: Travel Back to Wisconsin

As the last day continued, we were faced with the dreaded time - 9:30 PM - time to leave for the airport. Our bags were packed and repacked, by far lighter than when we came with all the dried black beans, mac and cheese, homemade pickles and salsa and jelly beans. Saying good bye to everyone is always the worst thing.

We traveled for our last time through the traffic of Muscat, however it was not that heavy at that time of night.

We were stopped in airport security for a couple of things - there was metal that needed to be dug out of the suitcase - it was a bag of decorative metal locks from the souq that triggered the detectors and also some medical equipment that I carry that includes a battery pack, was suspicious and they would not allow me to carry it on the plane, maybe not at all on the plane, in checked bags either because I did not have the prescription with me from the doctor - note to everyone - take copies of prescriptions with you when traveling with prescription meds or equipment. After about a half hour of discussion, it was determined that the equipment would be allowed to continue with us but had to be in checked baggage. There was not a problem with this equipment coming through Chicago and Heathrow because they had the equipment to test it to see it was not dangerous, but the Muscat Airport does not have the ability to do that. Thankfully Carey was with us through security and could help us sort through the options.

After saying our goodbyes to Carey, we journeyed through the rest of the airport to find our final resting spot until our flight was called.

There were a lot more people taking this flight than when we came in. This flight makes a stop in Abu Dhabi (40 minute flight) to drop people off and pick up other passengers before it continues to Heathrow Airport in London. Thought we were home free because no one had taken the aisle seat after it appeared everyone had boarded. Suddenly, out of nowhere - a large man appeared. He walked past our row, only to return a short time later to sit in the aisle seat next to me, Carol. We were very tired and slept as well as we could for the start of the flight. An hour or two into the flight, it became very apparent that large aisle man had turned into large SNORING aisle man. He had his noise blocking Bose headset on for good reason. Several people turned around to see where the snoring was coming from. Needless to say, the rest of the 8+ hour flight was not very restful. He slept - and snored - through meals, drinks - all of it. He continued to sleep through landing, travel on the tarmac and only woke up when they turned on the overhead lighting and people started to make noise getting their bags out of the overhead compartments. It was an experience. Had it been Dick, or someone I knew, I would have given an elbow in the ribs.

Our layover in Heathrow was 5 hours long. We had coffee and a macaroon in a coffee shop, walked to the couple of shops and sat in Gate 46 for the wait.

We were right by the window and could watch the goings on of British Airways loading and unloading freight and food into planes. I read a book.

Finally it was close to loading time, only to realize they changed our gate sometime after our arrival. We now had to go to gate 34 and it was packed. No wonder there were not many people in gate 46!

We were fortunate enough to sit with a very friendly lady and her friend from the UK who were traveling to Chicago on "holiday." They enjoyed a bit of the "bubbly" and were very pleasant to talk with.

Dick enjoys sitting on the window seat to watch all that goes on below - not me, he can have the window seat anytime. The pictures are of Iceland,