Heading Home

The alarm went off way too soon, but we were up and out the door in 45 minutes. We wanted to get to the train station early so we could drop the rental car, organize all the bags, and find out where we needed to be to catch the right train to Charles de Gaulle Airport around 6 a.m.

We arrive at 5:00 a.m. but the gates are locked shut – the guards tell us they don’t open till 5:30 a.m. – 30 minutes before we needed to be on the train! Nothing we could do but just sit there. LaDawn kept telling me to practice the “P” word.

Once those gates opened, it was a whirlwind to get in, drop LaDawn off with all the bags, return the rental, get 5 bags muscled through the station, find the train, and prepare to board – remember, there are no skycaps around to help with any of this – you are on your own. We even managed to keep another American couple from boarding the wrong train. Anyway… we made it, saw a nice sunrise in the south of France, and the beautiful farm lands as we headed north.

Airport check-in was a breeze. As we stood in line, we struck up a conversation with some other passengers standing with us in line. This is where the “small world thing” popped up. The young lady we visited with was returning from her third business trip to India – she lives in Independence – not 5 miles away from us. Another gentleman was just returning from the West Bank, Lebanon, and Israel – he reports directly to the Vatican in Rome about the conditions of catholic elementary schools in the mid east. He lives in Cincy, but was going to spend a day or two in Dry Ridge, again right down the road from us – like I said, small world.

An hour later we were in the air. Yep, That's the Great American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium from the air as we were coming in for a landing at CVG.