CUSTOMS :) - We're Home

From Rome, we landed in Paris where our flight to Minneapolis was already boarding so we had no time to spare! Our seats were in the very back of the plane, right in front of the bathrooms. ** Note to self – n.e.v.e.r.   s.i.t.    b.y.    b.a.t.h.r.o.o.m.s.   on a 9 hour flight if you want to get a wink of sleep **

When we arrived in Minneapolis we had to retrieve our luggage and recheck it through customs which would leave very little time to catch our connecting flight to Denver. We were told there were 850 people (literally) that had landed at the same time and had to go through customs. To say that Katie was freaking out 

that we would miss our connecting flight is an understatement. It's funny now. It was not funny then. (ok, it was a little funny then)

There were numerous customs agents working but with that many people you can only imagine how long the lines were and how long it took that many people to go through the customs process. By the time we finally made it through customs we had very little time and still had to get through security. THEN… when we had to recheck our bags again to be loaded on the plane! People were scrambling at this point. 

We headed toward the gate at which point we heard on the intercom, “Braithwait, Peterson, Silva, Porter – Final call for flight to Denver.” Oh geez! Never had that happen before. *ha* 

We had no idea how far away we were from the gate but we started running in that direction. And yes, we made our flight to Denver! With minutes to spare. 

Once in Denver we waited for our ‘wine inventory luggage’ to arrive. My sister, Shelley’s bag was the first to come out on the carousel. Then we waited…and waited…and waited…  You guessed it!! Her bag was the only one that had made it through customs in time to catch the flight. I have no idea how one bag made it and the others didn’t. 

So… Jess and Katie headed to baggage claim… By this time, Katie is about to pop a vein in her neck. (That poor lady that was working in luggage claim is a saint. Can you imagine dealing with tired, unhappy, crabby people every single day?) Needless to say, we did not wait for the bags to arrive on a later flight. The airline delivered Katie’s bag to her house the next day and delivered the other two bags to North Platte the following day.

Inside each bag was a little tag that said customs had opened it to inspect the contents. I bet they had a heck of a time getting them zipped shut again. *giggle*

    

MEMORIES!!!