Spain Day 14- The Trip Home July 27, 2015

We got up at 6:30 and met for our last wonderful Spanish breakfast buffet at 7:15. We checked out at 8:15 and once again, I was less than thrilled with the front desk. The clerk did not charge the bill correctly, converting it to dollars, rather than letting us get a good rate from Capital One MasterCard. She even denied that she had done this, but I found out the truth, when I saw the bill at home.
We'd ordered a taxi and at 8:30, we piled in. It took only 17 minutes to reach the Madrid airport. At 8:52, my husband, younger daughter and I joined the ridiculously long American Airlines check in line. Our older daughter had headed off to Iberia Airlines to check in for her flight.

In line, we had loads of time to appreciate the architecture of this new international terminal. We just didn't appreciate the wait. Our older daughter even had time to spend with us, as she checked in quickly. We did not finish at the ticketing area until 9:47. Then, it was 8 minutes to get to the line for security. At 10:07, we were through, even though I was patted down due to buckles on my sandals. I wish I could remember that Europe does not make you take off your shoes. Then, I'd leave on sneakers.
At 10:10, we were waiting for the train to the R Gates. I was getting nervous, due to the lateness of the hour. We were on the train at 10:14 and off 4 minutes later. Next there was an escalator. At 10:20, we were in another line for passports, but through in 1 minute. More escalators! The route actually forces you to go through the duty free shop. We stopped at 10:27, for my younger daughter to buy a bottle of Fanta to take home. That took just a minute, but we had another security check of passports at American Airlines near R7. We said good-bye to our older daughter, who was headed to DC, and hurried to the gate, where they were already boarding. We got to the gate at 10:38 and at 10:46, we were seated in 39 E, F, G Flight 69 to Miami. I was a bit of a wreck from the stress. I know I had said we should leave earlier than we wound up leaving!
At 11:22, the plane pushed back and we took off at 11:36. The video system on this flight was really lousy, especially in comparison to the one on the flight over. It was hard to hear and you had to wait for a showing; you couldn't just start a movie.
About 1, I had the chicken dinner. Later, they passed out cups of ice cream. About 6:55, they passed out tomato/pesto wrap with coconut sponge cake. I did not eat the latter, as I hate coconut, but the wrap was good. At 8:20, we started a very turbulent approach. I then changed my watch to reflect our home time.
At 2:23 EDT, we had a rough landing at Miami International and people actually clapped. What the hey?!

At 2:50, we were through immigration via a kiosk and took time for a pit stop before going for our bags. My husband's and mine were off at 3:23 and my daughter's was there a minute later. At 3:33, we were in the TSA line for our next flight. My daughter was quite upset to find she had to down her Fanta. If she'd known there was a TSA line, she would have stuffed it in her suitcase, before dropping it at bag check. We were through the line by 3:50, thanks to overcrowding that got us moved to the TSA Pre line.
At 4:15, we found a TGI Friday's to have dinner. I ordered the Strawberry Passion Fruit Tea and my daughter got the Mango Passion Smoothie. Both were delicious.

Since we were back in the states, it seemed only right to order the Jack Daniel's Burger, while my daughter went for the All American Stacked Burger. Neither disappointed.

My husband opted for the Jack Daniel's Chicken Sandwich with a side salad, which he enjoyed.

The whole thing came to $58.52, which was not cheap. But, it's an airport in the US. We headed onward at 5.
At 5:10, we'd been searching for our gate, E31,when we found we couldn't get there. We needed a bus, but the access to the bus area was blocked. Lots of other folks were seated right near the escalator down to the bus. I went off to buy 3 Miami pins.
At 6:25, we were finally able to get in line for the bus. At 6:44, we were on the bus and found that even the flight crew takes the bus. We reached the terminal in 4 minutes and found it was still under construction! What made it really bad was that boarding was delayed while they waited for crew from an international flight. I did get a nice sunset shot.

We were finally seated in 25 D,E, and F at 7:45 on Flight 2447. Pushback was at 8:20, which was about 25 minutes late. We took off at 8:55 with no explanation for the 1 hour delay. Our flight was due in at OIA at 9:02, but we didn't land until 9:32.  We collected our luggage and were picked up by my husband's colleague at 10:15.
It had been a long day, and we were glad to be home, but we all agreed it was a great two weeks.