Home Again!

I am here back in Arkansas now after a very eventful month and a half. I must say that up until the flight home things could not have gone better. Sure there were minor mishaps but it all led to new and more interesting discoveries. The flight home though is no time for mishaps and new discoveries though and therefore when sitting in the gate for my flight i see flashon the screen "Chaos at Heathrow" I kind of freaked. Turned out it was only British Airways food service and baggae service people going on strike. No biggie right, I was flying American Airlines and was in a totally different terminal. WRONG! So I get to Chicago after a very very cold flight in which there were literally ice crystals falling on me from the ceiling only to find that I have made it to the USA, but my luggage has not. I wait patiently wondering how in the world, having checked in four hours early for my flight, they could possibly have not gotten it on the plane. Then to my great dismay my already late flight at 9:24 would be postponed, and then postponed again. I finally left the run way around 11 Thursday night and back to Little Rock around 12:15. There,I also found no sign of my luggage as well and lost all hope that it would return home with me that night. So I filed a missing bag report and went home to sleep. It is now Saturday night and still no sign of my luggage. I have become great at the automated baggage phone service,talked to many representatives, and still am no closer to knowing where in the world my bag may be. They cannot tell me if it has even left London. I must say that in the current day and age I find this to be shocking. I mean I have been given every possible excuseon the planet for why my bag might be delayed, all before informing me that to my great dismay the chaos at Heathrow was a problem for me as British Airways personnel handle all luggage for the planes. So now I ponder whether my poor little bag is sitting alone in a corner of Heathrow forgotten in the masses, stuck in customs at O Hare or even worse sitting in some punks apartment who picked it up by mistake or even worse on purpose. I must say that the joys of travel do diminish slightly when such incompetency among the people you are trusting with 75% of your total belongings begins to show. So for now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed, say a few prayers, and try not to think of the troubles that will follow if my luggage never agains surfaces.

P.S. - After tonight I am now on a first name basis with one of the luggage people :)