We awoke at some terribly early hour to get ready for our 6:45am flight to Phoenix. I just managed to squeeze onto the very full shuttle bus for the short ride to the airport. The flight over was uneventful – I slept the entire way, and we were soon at the gate in Phoenix. A brief wait for our bags ensued (US in PHX is very slow for bags 90% of the time), after which we began hunting around for the shuttle bus that would take us back to our respective houses. We ended up waiting for about ½ hour before the shuttle arrived, we loaded our bags, and were off.

Because there were only four of us on the shuttle, the driver was happy to drop me off at my driveway (normally they have pre-defined stops along their route). This was very convenient given my now ridiculous load of stuff. I dropped my bags inside, took a shower and changed into my work clothes, and paused for a minute in my clean and quiet house.

It often strikes me as amusing that I could be doing something as routine as buying a gallon of milk at the grocery store when just the previous day I was halfway around the world – it’s really incredible how the world shrinks and becomes accessible thanks to air travel. It was a great adventure and truly an amazing experience, but I was happy to be home.