Lesson learned, don’t buy so much stuff that I need to also buy another piece of luggage to get it all home from South Africa.
Left Cape Town Wed at 2pm for a two hour flight to Johannesburg. Then a four hour layover with rechecking luggage plus through security twice and I was back in the air for 16 hours to New York’s JFK. Had three hours there to once again recheck the luggage because it was my port of entry into the US. Then the final five hour leg to Phoenix. Plus a two hour shuttle ride to Prescott where Berta picked me up, almost literally as I was totally exhausted.
Thursday night’s Yarnell sunset didn’t disappoint as I wearily looked at all the unpacking to leave for another day. Was so nice to sleep in my own bed and know I didn’t have to get too early in the morning.
After a trip to the dentist on Friday I started to dig out the goodies gathered for myself and friends. This doesn’t include all the cute clothes I bought either.
Saturday I caught up with reading many blogs. But it seems I’m falling asleep at the computer earlier than usual. My biological clock seems to want me in bed by 10pm and up 5:30am. Not my past pattern at home when I’m more like 11/12 to 7 asleep.
And Sunday I pulled out all the receipts from this 46 day journey and started to figure out what I really spent.
Still haven’t unpacked everything and the house is a mess. Oh well, guess I have some time as I don’t return to Grand Canyon until the end of April, or to South Africa until at least late fall.
Yet, there’s no place like home.
I hate unpacking after a trip but its awesome to go through everything you bought to remember the trip by
Between all the stuff and over 10,000 photos I will never forget.
Glad you made it safely home! Looking forward to seeing many more pics of your fantastic voyage.
Thanks Susie. I’ll be posting for at least the next six months.
Sometimes the best part of going away is coming home. We always look forward to our time in the southwest but that arriving home is a very precious time as well. Quite the cart you got there for carrying all your Africa stuff. That’s a long travel time spent sitting tightly in airplanes. I would have trouble dealing with the cramped hours of sitting so long like that……………
There is something special about home and part of what makes traveling away from it so much fun. The long flights are the worst part. Even wearing compression stockings my feet and ankles still swelled a bit.
I’ll miss all the pictures of fabulous Africa but am glad you are safely home. Definitely sounds like an exhausting trip back even if amazingly nothing went wrong. Love the pictures of all your goodies. Welcome home!
You’ll be looking at photos from South Africa for so many months to come you may get tired of them. Thanks, it’s nice to be home.
Welcome home! Susie pointed out that you should mail stuff home. It was expensive when I was in Scotland, but when we were in Hawaii, I used the U.S. Post Office “if it fits, it ships” boxes. Looks like a great trip!
Thanks Garry, nice to be home. Very expensive to ship from South Africa. But I made it even hauling a few rocks. 😉
Welcome home! It looks like you’ve scored all sorts of fabulous goodies – it’s always nice to take a piece of your travels home. I always hate unpacking my RV after returned home. When in Tucson I did a “tour” of the thrift stores there. I especially liked the Goodwill Outlet. The “hard” goods are 69 cents/pound and the “soft” goods are 99 cents/pound. You have to be patient and look through “stuff” but the rewards are amazing! 🙂
Who can resist a good deal. LOVE those outlet thrift stores, except for the added weight. My RV is already overflowing with stuff.
What a wonderful trip you had. Thanks so much for taking us along! We were exhausted after our flight ordeal from Roatan to Tucson and yours was much longer! Enjoy your home and beautiful memories!
It was a wonderful trip, as I’m sure was Roatan. Flights the worse part. Even with compression stockings, walking, twisting and lifting my ankles and feet became a bit swollen.
I bet it was nice to get home. Now you get to sort through everything.
I had to put the mohair blanket on the bed last night and dreamed of South Africa. 🙂
You came home with some fantastic souvenirs, and no doubt each piece holds wonderful memories. Money well spent, I say!
I tried not to get too carried away but you know how it goes. Every piece does carry memories.
Thoroughly enjoyed following your journey – hope there will be lots more to read about it!
When I travel I often take old clothes with me which I then discard before leaving, which means I have extra room in my luggage! Of course it depends on where you’re going, but if hiking or just mooching about is on my list I take the old clothes. Every time I look at a T-shirt or something and think “I might get a couple more wears out of this,” I pop into into the case in which I keep all my travel stuff, so I won’t forget. Of course this has its problems sometimes. In England last year I was staying in hostels and using some comfy, old pyjamas. When I got to London I found that my son had booked me into a very swish hotel as my Mother’s Day present! I had decent day clothes with me, but I hid those pyjamas every morning! Way too embarrassed for a maid to see them!
Thanks Linda. I’ll be posting for the next six months at least. Next time I’ll remember the “pack old clothes” trick as I bought several really fun items while there. You’re suppose to sleep in pyjamas? 😉
Glad you are back home and had a great trip.
It was awesome!
Welcome back stranger!!! Gosh that flew by quickly. Now I’ll be catching up on your blog!!:)
Thanks Chris. Wait until you see some of the birds. 😉
Hi, Gaelyn! Your postcard was waiting for me when I returned; thank you. I sent you one from INdia, and hope it arrived. I got home yesterday, and jet lag hit me today. I traveled with a very large backpack and large purse, accompanied, on the return, by another large bag. So the purse was my purse, the bag was my carry-on, and the backpack was my checked piece! And it still was a pain to spend 7 hours in Istanbul airport…big hugs and I’ll be back commenting soon.
Welcome home. I received two post cards from you. Thanks it’s fun to get snail mail.
It’s not easy to over pack, especially on the return journey.
Oh, and did I say it was 28 degrees Celsius (very warm) in Delhi when I left and 2 degrees Celsius when I arrived…very cold…I hate it.
Oh that’s Way too cold. I don’t like cold either.
You sure did a lot of shopping Gaelyn!! When I visited the USE I would take a suitecase within a suitecase for all the extra things I would buy to bring back. 🙂 It sure dies take a while for your body to adjust to the time there again. Hope you catch up soon.
I tried not to get too carried away, but…. Am slowly staying up closer to my later time. But you may have to retrain me to earlier when I return.
Unpacking the gifts to yourself looks wonderfully fun. Going through the receipts looks horrid. But I know both “collections” were worth it. I’m glad you’re home safe and look forward to hearing more.
Still not done with unpacking everything. Soon, I’ll be posting more.
LOVELY set of goodies you got there. Just adore those African colors and patterns. Welcome home!
Nina
Thanks Nina. It was more to shop there than here.
I’m loving all of the souvenirs your brought back!!!
I might have gotten a little carried away. 🙂
Welcome back home! 😉