June 14: Home - Finally

About 4:30 the airport started to come to life. By 5am there was a steady flow of morning workers and a growing number of passengers. The increasing noise soon woke the team members who had fallen asleep. Not a very comfortable night's rest. As the first flight of the day from the gate we were at moved on the gate attendant printed out boarding passes for our team. One member who really wanted to get back early was lucky enough to get an unexpected seat. It was then off to breakfast returning just before the first flight of three was to board. These folks got a direct flight into Omaha and they even pushed back right on time.

Once the gate was closed up, the rest of us headed down the terminal to see team two off. This group would fly into Dallas and then catch an early afternoon flight into Omaha. Good news, as team two loaded, team one arrived safely in Omaha. With team two now in the air, we waited to hear about team three. They would actually take off and land before team two arrived in Dallas. The only concern team two had was they were unable to get boarding passes for the second leg of their journey before arriving in Dallas. Hopefully everything goes okay. This will be another one of those we'll see moments. So, if the schedule shows that travel time is only 13 hours, how long does it take? If everything goes right, 32 hours to get the last member home. The question everyone asks is porque Dio.

Just heard from group three, everyone made it back to Omaha without any difficulty. One person's baggage did not show up but that will probably sort itself out by the time we arrive. When we tried to get our boarding passes, we learned from the gate attendant that the person who rebooked us incorrectly voided our last leg of the trip. We were a bit concerned. The thought was what else could go wrong. Walked out to the ticket agent and she took care of things without any trouble.

Everyone has a ticket and boarding pass, life is good. There is not a cloud in the sky so unless the airplane has a mechanical problem, we should be golden. Push back was right on time and we enjoyed an uneventful flight back into Omaha. All in all the last 24 hours were pretty rough, but now that we are home our ordeal only becomes a memory of what has transpired, a memory that will stay with us for a very long time.