Day 9: The End of the Journey

Our car was inspected for scratches and other damage by the same Enterprise girl who had checked us in. She really did not give our car nearly the intense examination that Chad and I were imaging every time we nearly hit a bush along the side of the road. Had we known, we probably would have significantly decreased our stress level for the driving portion of the trip. After finding the car to be in exceptional condition, we signed the paperwork to have our deposit refunded (yay!) and boarded an Enterprise van to be dropped off at the airport.

The journey from Enterprise should have taken five minutes, but because of the construction we were in the van for at least a half hour, which put us way behind schedule. It was fun visiting with the driver and bonding over crappy road construction stories. We also discussed favorite places in Ireland and Europe and it was nice to hear that even other Europeans think the French are rude snobs. We finally made it to the airport and bid cheers to our friendly driver.

Checking our bags was no problem as they were well within the weight limit. We were then told to be at the gate at 12:30. As we glanced at Chad's watch, the little digital numbers just changed to 12:29. Boo. We immediately began running since we had not even passed through security yet. Just as we were about to reach the security check points, an alarm began loudly ringing through the airport. We were not allowed to pass through security and all the airport guards walked around with furrowed brows.

The alarms continued to ring for another ten minutes during which we were not allowed to move. When they finally stopped ringing, we scurried through security as fast as we could. The second we were through, we glanced down at our boarding passes to find out which gate we should run towards. 16D. To the right we ran.

We kept running, but when we started seeing gates the numbers were not in their teens. Panic set in (at least for one of us- I'm sure you all know who). The more logical of our duo stopped a security guard on a little cart and inquired about the gate 16D. Turns out, there is no 16D. There's a 16B. In the opposite direction. And off we ran, back towards the direction of the security stations.

We finally made it to customs where we were told that because we did not fill out our card prior to getting in line, we would have to exit the line and follow the instructions like everyone else. Chad scribbled out all the information on our card and we cut a bunch of people off, but we made it through the first customs gate. The American custom gate only took a minute and by the time we finally arrived at our gate it was 1 PM.

After all the rushing, now it was time to wait. We grabbed some seats and anticipated boarding at 1:15 PM. Then we heard the announcement- our flight was delayed 15 minutes. We visited the vending machines. One of our candy bars tried to rip us off and wouldn't fall. We went back to our spots. A little while later we heard another announcement- our flight was delayed another 15 minutes. We went to the concession stand for a croissant and a bottle of Coke. We took our change back to the vending machine and declared victory over the rouge candy bar. Our seats were gone so we stood next to all the families with a million children who were preparing to board early. Chad nearly got accosted by a irate child who flung herself, backpack and all, across his feet. Everyone was getting irritable and restless. We finally boarded at 2:10 PM.

The flight went by rather quickly. We should have slept, but instead entertained ourselves with watching as many movies and tv shoes as our little headrest televisions could handle. Chad enjoyed "The Dark Knight", "Stepbrothers", and "The Rocker." I watched "The Women" (terrible movie), "WTO" (depressing movie), and episodes of "SATC" and "Grey's Anatomy" (always classic). The food was okay, not as good as the flight over, but still above average.

We finally landed in snowy Chicago around 3 PM Central Time. Somehow our luggage came out super early and we were out of our gate in record time. We called our amazing third grandma Nancy who was going to come pick us up and then called our families to let them know we were safe on American soil. After Nancy picked us up, we visited with her and Jim and got some dinner. We got so caught up in visiting that we didn't leave until 9 PM to make the drive back to Madison. Along the way, after losing nearly all our tires, we decided that we will refuse to pay future tolls if Illinois can't maintain the potholes in Hwy 90.

Home sweet home around 11:30 PM or 5:30 AM in Irish time. We parked our car in our creepy parking spot and walked with our luggage back to our apartment in the snow. The second we walked in the door I crashed on the bed and did not awake again until my alarm went off at 7 AM to tell me to get ready for a long day of work. Our honeymoon had officially ended, but it sure was a memorable one.