Coming Home

We made it home safely. After the long but uneventful flight back east, we landed at Dulles at 9 PM. Yet we did not get to our car until 10:30. So I'll gripe about that for a minute. The plane was crowded so of course it took a while to disembark.

We walked to the "People Mover" bus gates and there was a crowd. The first bus was full and we made our way onto the next one, which had no seats left so we had to stand up as the bus lurched over the tarmac. 

Then we walked to baggage claim and waited. And waited. Eventually some bags came out but not ours. After a long wait, only four other people were left watching for baggage. Finally we got our suitcase and we went out into the cold to catch the bus to the "blue" economy lot. One pulled out before we reached it so we stood in the freezing cold and waited. The green lot bus came and went, then the gold lot bus. Time passed, five employee buses passed, another green bus... When a third green bus pulled up, we and other freezing passengers pleaded with the driver to call for a blue bus. About five minutes after that, our bus finally came and took us to our car.
We drove to Chantilly and found not much open except for drive-through lanes at restaurants so we got some fast food before making the long drive home. Fortunately our bodies were adjusted to western time, so getting home at 1 AM was not too much of a hardship.