POST 24 (11/26/25) WEDNESDAY, TRAVEL HOME DAY 🥲

We awakened plenty early for my preparation, breakfast, packing, transport to the airport, and flight home. We showed up bright and early for the buffet, and had a similar breakfast to the day before. Now familiar with us, the staff were super sweet and engaging. We were gonna miss this...

Back up at the suite, I got myself cleaned up, packed up, and ready for the long and arduous trip home. Before packing my festive sequined hat, I couldn't help but pop it on Ramón for a quick pic. His look really speaks volumes if you know what you're looking at:

With sadness from separation anxiety, we descended in the elevator, arrived at the lower reception desk for check out, asked the doorman for a taxi, and said our goodbyes at the street when the taxi arrived. If you meet someone who is not that exciting to you, you just want to get away and don't care. But when you meet a special one and the chemistry is strong, it makes it very difficult to leave each other, especially knowing that the distance between will make a reunion difficult and not likely any time soon.

My cab driver was pretty cool, and kept changing the music to try and accommodate me. He also followed me on Instagram when he found out I was The Blue Rocker. One slight hiccup was that he had a colleague who had a broken credit card reader and asked him to stop by his location, which was slightly out of our way, to bail him out. This is one of those situations that just happen and must be endured. We got through that, and he (literally) zoomed off toward the airport. This time I was sure to specify the airline (Lufthansa) and ensure I saw the sign at the entry door indicating I was in the right spot.

The bag drop went smoothly, security, as has been 100% the case on this trip, had zero wait, and after some belt removal, etc. plus a brief extra question about my backpack, all was quickly fine and I was making my way to the VIP lounge up on the second floor. I hit the duty free for a few bottles of fine Spanish olive oil for my neighbors who had taken care of my plants while I was away, and one for my Thanksgiving host Laurie, I found my way to the Priority Pass lounge. The buffet was mediocre, definitely not as good as the breakfast buffet I had already eaten, so I just had a small snack. I hadn't arrived excessively early, so it was a fairly brief lounge visit, a quick pitstop, and I made my way towards the gate. When I arrived there, people were already swarming the group boarding zone lines like "gate lice". The problem with this situation is that despite not wanted to support this behavior, if you don't join them, you may not find adequate storage for your carry-on. The line was already super long, winding around the terminal, so I did jump in. Unfortunately this line crossed the terminal thoroughfare, blocking passage of passengers. At one lucky moment of movement, I helped to usher the entire line behind me to a position that did not block the path, which was pretty cool to have accomplished.

But alas, there were delays. We didn't start moving at 1:10 as scheduled. After 15 minutes, I received a notification that the flight was delayed. Given my hour window for connection in the enormous Frankfurt airport, I immediately knew there was a good chance I could miss my connecting flight back to SFO. The delay kept extending, and we ended up leaving 40 minutes late, meaning my connection was reduced to 20 minutes. To make matters worse, somewhere along the line, my seat changed from 11C Up front on the aisle - easy to escape upon arrival) to 29A (much farther back and scrunched against the window). Granted I was in a loooong legged exit row seat, which was comfy, but I couldn't store my backpack in the seat in front of me, given the exit row needed to be kept clear. My seat neighbor was a super cool guy originally from Poland but had lived in Germany most of his life. He was wearing a shirt that had caught my attention at the gate area "Pink Freud", which I thought was hilarious. It turns out to be a rock/jazz fusion band he saw once. We talked music almost the whole way to Frankfurt. Knowing I would likely miss my flight, I was already making plans in my mind to spend a few extra days in Frankfurt, hit the Christmas markets, try to see my friend Bernhard, and just enjoy a little side trip to Germany. So it was cool to not stress at all about missing a connection. I couldn't lose. Either I get home for Thanksgiving or I get a bonus side trip.

Once off the plane, I asked a transfer agent if I was going to make it. She said she wouldn't bother and that I should just go to customer service instead. The customer service agent called the other gate, and it turned out they were holding the flight for me. Wait, what?! I was 20 minutes late for that departure, and had to go from gate A24 to Z19. But sure enough, I waltzed on like I owned the plane, took my spot at 2L in Polaris class, and got comfy for the 12+ hour flight ahead. The crew were SF based and super cool. The flight was super long and I watched 4 movies, one of which I highly recommend (which is even on YouTube) called The Thinking Game about the creation of Deep Mind (AI company later bought by Google) and some of their (amazingly altruistic) accomplishments so far.

We arrived at SFO on time after making up the delay in the air. I noticed that we had 100mph tailwinds almost the whole way, according to the in-flight information on the screen at my seat. I got a slight surprise at immigration because I used the kiosk for Global Entry, but the agent told me that mine had expired. She let me through anyway though, so I was good to go. I located the applicable baggage carousel, and before the first bag arrived I thought to check my Airtag to see if my bag was here or in Frankfurt. Smart move! I didn't waste more than a couple minutes at the carousel before finding out that was a waste of my time:

So I went to the luggage assistance counter and explained my situation. How ironic it was that I have not traveled with a checked suitcase for over 20 years, and the first time I do, my bag doesn't make it onto my flight. The funny irony is that I was sort of glad that it didn't, because if I had not made the flight and extended my stay in Frankfurt for a few days, I would have wanted to have that suitcase with me. haha

I darted out of the terminal, concerned that taxi lines may be long on one of the busiest travel days of the year - the day before Thanksgiving. But nope. I was the first to arrive at the taxi stand. There were none present at the moment, so while waiting I snapped this glad-to-be-home pic:

My taxi driver was from Taiwan, and was a sweet older guy. BUT, it was a pretty nauseating ride. I have never experienced anyone drive like that in my life. He would push his foot up and down on the accelerator literally constantly, I mean non-stop the entire ride. He drove 58-60 on the 65MPH 280, and I thought it was going to go on forever. Fortunately I was able to nod off on the way. I guess it lulled me like a rocking chair. Also, it was now about 4am in my head, so I was beat. And I did not allow myself to sleep one minute on the plane, so I would not mess up my actual night's sleep back at home. I awakened a block from my house, and got there by 10pm. I was in bed quickly, and that was the end to this 3 1/2 week journey of a lifetime. My suitcase flew over from Frankfurt on Thursday, and was delivered to me on Friday morning. 

I'm going to make one more blog entry reflecting on the trip, so stay tuned for that a little later today...