So East it's Ouest

We didn't get much sleep and up at 4:00am we were.  We caught the morning shuttle and made our way to the terminal.  A cold fear was in the air as the attendant checked in our bags, but yes they were both EXACTLY 23kg each *large smile and sigh of relief* the attendant even tried to change our seats to be sitting beside each other.  Going through Marseille was a piece of cake, although once again they thought that my bike tool kit was a grenade and opened my zipper rip-worthy bag in order to check it out, the guy was huffing and puffing by the time he was able to zipper that beast shut again.  We flew Marseille (1.5hr)->Madrid->(8.5hrs)Chicago->(1hr)Fort Wayne.  Madrid is an enormous but wonderful airport, there are even workers waiting for travelers at the terminal when you land just to help you figure out what wing you need to go to.  The Madrid-Chicago flight is a killer, it takes longer going from Europe to the US than the other way round by ab...

24 hours of travel,  no meals, fighting off jet lag, figuring out how Euros work=exhaustion.  I am so ready to go to sleep tonight.  I have a problem with not sleeping when I'm traveling, even as a little kid when we would drive down to Ft. Meyers, a whole day away, I wouldn't get a wink of sleep not'a one.  Ross dropped us off at 9:00am Thursday and we got to where we are staying today Friday at 2:00pm.   At the Madrid airport, which is beautiful but strangly designed, they made me worried when they spent 10mins looking over my passport,  then they took my carry-on aside and pulled me over, 'oh no' I thought ' they're going to throw something out of my bag or call me a terrorist'.  Turns out my bicycle mechanics pouch is shaped just like a bomb, so I hurriedly tried to say bicycle in Spanish, to the customs officer's chagrin: una velo, los bicyclette, las bicicletas!  : }   We flew from Ft.Wayne->Chicago->Madrid->Marseille and then ...