Yesterday was a long day--up at 6:30 in Lisbon for final packing, a final European-style breakfast, a crowded metro ride to the airport, and going through at least four security checkpoints before boarding our 12:15 flight to Philadelphia. Our flight in Philly arrived on time, but there must have been 500 people in line at TSA checkpoint and again at the passport check. We scored a TSA Precheck pass at the former, so we went through the short line and abbreviated inspection/x-ray procedure there. But there is a new, double-layered procedure at the customs and immigration point that must have been designed by the geniuses at the US Postal Service--it took over an hour to snake through the maze of queue ropes to get to an automated robot that took our picture and asked a few questions, then stood in another line to have our passports stamped by a real live person.
Our flight to Denver was scheduled to leave at 6:05, but was delayed nearly an hour by a tardy cleaning crew and then by a 20-minute wait in the long line on the taxiway before we took off. We finally touched down in Denver right at 9:00 pm. Fortunately, we had no checked luggage, so we went right to the new airport transit center and caught the A-Line train to Union Station, then Ubered home from there. We arrived at our front door at 11:00pm, beating the pumpkin deadline by a full hour. It was our first experience with both the airport train and with Uber, and both went smoothly. The Uber app on my phone made arranging that ride a snap.
Looking back, Jeanette's foot problem turned out to be a blessing in the end, and in spite of my grumbles about the long train rides that ensued, it gave us a few more days in Spain and in Portugal to unwind and enjoy Madrid and Lisbon in a much more leisurely manner. We especially enjoyed Lisbon, which is much more laid back than the hustle and bustle of Madrid--and at least 15 or 20 degrees (F) cooler.
I apologize for all my spelling and other blunders on my previous blog posts--it was the first time I'd tried to do something like that on the tiny keyboard of my i-phone, and it was definitely more of a challenge than I expected. Of course writing that late at night as the last thing before lights-out may have contributed to both my fumbling fingers and my sometimes grumpy attitude. But it did keep me from getting too wordy, which I have a tendency to do.
I also want to thank those of you that took the time to post comments. Getting feedback and encouragement from you was always a special gift. I've heard by e-mail and text from a few others who have said they had tried to post comments but were unable to do so; again I apologize for not reminding everyone that that they have to "follow" the blog by pushing the "Follow" button up on the upper right portion of the page. Of course when you do that you also have to tell Google some of your deep, dark personal secrets, which some folks are reluctant to do. Not to worry, I understand. I just figure they already know more about me than I know about myself anyway.
Since this is probably the last post in this chapter of our travel blog, I just want to say thanks to those who tagged along with us. Until the next adventure, adios and vaya con Dios.
