Back to the States...but wait! There's more...travel delays

Just when you think a 2+ hour layover is enough…poof.

Of course, we did not leave at 11:15, and did not get into Atlanta at 4:30.

We scrambled from our gate to customs, which was handling probably 3 planeloads of passengers as efficiently as possible. Once we cleared customs, we were directed to security - where Bob’s bag got pulled.

For the corkscrew he forgot he had packed.

In his defense, we are the only country that considers a corkscrew a deadly weapon. In Italy, at least (and probably France), traveling with a corkscrew is like traveling with a toothbrush. We bought the corkscrew in Palermo - none of the airport security screenings to this point had been bothered about it.

But Atlanta was. They pulled absolutely everything out his carry-on, looking for this cheap corkscrew that could barely handle opening a bottle of wine whenever we had occasion to use it. They sent the bag back through the scanner, contents all piled up this way and that. Rummaged around some more. Finally Bob told them to check inside a pair of shoes, and there it was.

Bob repacked his bag, and had given up any hope that we would make the flight - we had to get the train from terminal F to terminal A. I hurried him along, because God knows, we hadn’t had a single flight on the entire trip that actually left on time.

And sure enough, the gate was still open. We were hurried onto the plane, the last two passengers.

Home felt pretty good that night.