12Jul – Disembark / Fly Home

Up by 2:00 AM
Luggage in the hallway by 2:45 AM.
Our bus to the airport leaves at 3:15 AM.

The airport was very busy–with a particularly long line at the Brussels Air counter. Fortunately, we had our boarding passes and could use the self-check-in kiosk to tag and drop off our luggage. (I still had the seating issue (window, not aisle) but was able to resolve that at the gate.)

The connection to our trans-Atlantic flight went smoothly, as did the flight itself.

Where did we have an issue? In the USA, of course. At Dulles.

Unlike our delayed departure two weeks ago, this 30 minute…then one hour…then even longer delay was due to Mother Nature (i.e. a lightning storm). For safety reasons, personnel are prevented from working on the tarmac while there is lightning detected within 10 miles of the airport. That means a freeze on processing both arriving and departing planes until the all-clear.

One incoming flight, an arrival from Detroit, had to wait on the tarmac for over an hour rather than finish its approach to the gate. It carried our flight crew.

Needless to say, we eventually arrived home safe and sound. It may have been a little later than planned and our exhaustion after a long day & a 6 hour time change was almost crippling, but (Click. Click. Click.) there’s no place like home.