This is no way to end a vacation!

The travel alarm goes off at 4:13 AM.  The Pilot's alarm goes off at 4:15 and 4:20 AM.  Finally, I turn on the light before the next Pilot alarm, and roll out before it starts.  Brig gets up, miraculously, of her own accord.  We groggily go through the motions of packing, washing up, packing, eating my customary "pre-breakfast," and final packing after I brush my teeth.

We manage to fit all our excess booty (including the ill-considered mustard) in our main packs and day packs, without having to use the spare expandable bag!  We reach the door to the hotel at precisely 5:00 AM, when the taxi was scheduled to arrive.  What to do with the room key?  The hotel desk area is locked off.  I set the key on the reception door latch, and the taxi driver knocks on the street door.  Mon dieu!  A prompt driver!

The taxi races to Charles De Gaulle airport at 120 kph (about 75 mph).  It arrives in 25 minutes, 1/2 the time allotted by the guidebooks.  Of course, for most flights, you couldn't go 120 kph from Bastille to CDG.  We wait in the terminal for our 8:00 AM flight, while we could have remained comfortably in bed for another 30 minutes at least.  Oh, well.

Well, Dear Reader, this is where our travel journal ends.  The return trip was rather uneventful.  We did find that the food on the flight from Gatwick to Phoenix was much better than the food in the other direction.  We returned home before sunset.  Our accommodations now include a private bathroom, with shower and toilet.  We are back into the grind, and often think about our enjoyable vacation, the wonderful food, good company, and interesting sights.  A week or two after returning, we shared dinner and conversation with Peggy and Ray, our fellow Mira Mesans, and reminisced about the trip.

We hope to make it to the reunion, to see some of our fellow travelers again.  And we are determined to revisit some of the wonderful stops on our trip, and to explore other places in the world.

I hope you enjoyed sharing our observations.  Please feel free to email me with your comments, and anything else you might like to share.

...Russ