Arrival: As it was pitch black the view was nothing extraordinary. We touched down smoothly and took a good 15 minutes to taxi to our gate. We passed a large number of international carriers parked at the satellite terminal while taxing in, which helped pass the time. We approached our section of Tom Bradley and as usual had to be towed in. We stopped right in front of an American 777 bound for Heathrow. Towing took a good ten minutes today, as we had to wait for a tug according to our captain.

Once we were docked, the local time had become 18:15 and I was almost certain Charles, (CMK10) was going to be pretty ticked off at me arriving this late (his scheduled inbound from SFO was at 5:30 PM). As we disembarked, the crew were smiling and wishing everyone a pleasant stay in the United States. I thanked Katherine for a great flight to which she smiled and said, “thanks for letting me know.” We all commenced the usual marathon walk to immigration, which was rather empty at this time of day. I don’t think I have ever landed at TBI without at least 700 passengers in line.

My immigration officer today was a rather cheery old man, who for some reason started talking to me about “Harry Potter” because I went to an aeronautical university. All I can say is thank God I had watched the movies, otherwise who knows what could have happened. He stamped my passport with a “welcome back.”

Today we were using Belt Number 3 and when I approached it, there were bags already rolling around. My bag appeared about five minutes later and I was on my way towards customs. I took the shorter line behind a Spanish lady who looked a little ticked off.
Officer: “No bags today madam?”
Lady: “No, Alaska Airlines lost all my bags!”
The officer just smiled and waved her through and started laughing as I approached him. He asked me where I was coming from and I said India.
Officer: “You’re coming from India and you only have one bag?”
Me: “I like to travel light.”
Officer: “Sure looks that way. Go ahead.”

I walked out and met Charles where we exchanged greetings. Once the standard commentary was done, we headed to the phone area to call our Double Tree shuttle bus. Of course I had less than 12 hours before I would be back at the airport but at least for the night I could exchange pleasant conversation and have a good meal and a good night’s sleep.