Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Monday, October 2, 2006 - Eager to Go Home

We were up at five, and out of the hotel by 6:30. When we checked in at the airport, Missy was able to get a boarding pass for the Frankfurt flight, but Becca and I could only get boarding passes for the flight from Brussels to Frankfurt. Hope joined us; she was on the same flights to Philadelphia. She got her boarding passes without problem. Becca and I would have to get ours in Frankfurt.

The plane was late leaving. It put us in Frankfurt late, which made us late getting to the gate for our international flight. We had to go through additional security in Frankfurt, and I was selected for even more invasive security checks than usual. I was patted down. I had to take my brace off.

My shoes had to go through the belt separately. I was patted down again, in a separate room. Meanwhile, time was ticking away, and there wasn't much margin of error for us to get onto that Philadelphia flight.

The four of us got to the gate for our Philly flight. It was already boarding. I explained, in German, that Becca and I still needed boarding passes. That didn't matter, said the gate agent; we were too late anyway. The flight was closed.

Because the four of us, Missy, Becca, Hope, and myself, were traveling together, the gate agents decided that they had to put us on this flight. We were glad. Eventually, we did get herded onboard, still without boarding passes. At least we were on the flight!

We arrived in Philadelphia uneventfully. Our baggage took a long time to come. Becca still had another flight to catch, to Erie, and now she had less than half an hour to get her luggage, go through Customs, and go from A to F terminals. It seemed a stretch, especially since Becca couldn't run. There was a contraband-sniffing Beagle in the baggage area. She was very interested in our scents. The police officer with the dog asked us if we had had any food in our backpacks, and we all said we had sandwiches yesterday. The officer seemed satisfied that that was what interested her dog. We knew that it was more likely the scent of horses from our shoes, but we did not disabuse her of her notion that it was sandwiches. Hope produced a small round of cheese as evidence; it was sealed in wax so it was not contraband.

Eventually, all our luggage came. Becca had more or less given up on being able to make her next flight; there were certainly other flights to Erie today. She had exams to take tomorrow, and her textbooks were in her bag. She headed off to F terminal, and the rest of us headed to Customs. Hope's husband picked her up, and Missy's friend Kevin took her and me in Missy's car. They dropped me off at my sister's, and then went on to Blue Hill Farm. The horses were flying out tomorrow, and would go into quarantine for several days.

It had been a good trip. I was pleased with my horse's performance, and my own, and certainly Becca and Barb had great rides. Missy agreed that Rocky and I had done well, even if the scores were not what we had hoped and expected.

I called my husband, Bill, to let him know that I was safely on this side of the pond. He was eager to have me home, and I was eager to be home, too.

Back to the Index