Well, we made it back to New Mexico last Thursday night. The plane arrived in El Paso on time, unfortunately, my luggage did not. I didn’t really want to check my bag, it was carry-on size. But, I had purchased a cork screw in Paris and although TSA regulations say it is OK to carry-on a cork screw, I was concerned that the TSA toadies would have a hemorrhage when they saw the 1 inch curved foil cutter knife blade. So, to avoid any potential unpleasantness, I opted to check the bag. The bag made it to Atlanta where I had to claim it before clearing customs, but although Irene and I left our bags side by side with Delta in Atlanta, her’s was on the El Paso flight and mine was not.
Apparently Delta was having some issues in Atlanta. Approximately 12 people were lined up at the delta baggage office after we arrived in El Paso. Since our plane was a relatively small MD88, with a capacity of only about 120 passengers, that would mean that almost 10% of the people on board had checked baggage missing. I have come to expect the worst in these situations, however, on Friday afternoon the El Paso Delta baggage office called to say that they had been told my bag would arrive in El Paso at 8:05 PM on Friday (apparently the same flight we took, only 24 hours later) and they would update me when it arrived. On Saturday morning Las Cruces shuttle service called to tell me that they had my bag in their office. They said they would deliver it in the afternoon but I opted to pick it up from their office. When I picked up the bag, there were 10 or more bags in their office so apparently lost baggage is a frequent task for them. Interestingly, just before we left,I watched a 20-20 segment featuring John Stossel, ABC’s self-proclaimed debunker of myths, telling me that the frequency of lost baggage was a myth. Hmmmm, apparently Mr. Stossel is full of bunk!
Sadly, that lost luggage issue seemed to put a sour finish on our trip. In my humble opinion, Paris is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The museums and sights are beyond description, and the food and wine are marvelous. I did develope a cold on the trip, but thanks to the very helpful employees in the pharmacy, I got some wonderful cold medicine that knocked it out. I’ll go into more detail about the trip in the next few posts, and as I post my pictures.
Finally, let me just say that many Americans (especially those who have never been there) seem to believe that the French arre rude and dislike Americans. Nothing could be further from the truth. We never met a single person on our entire trip who was less than polite and didn’t try to be helpful. Whether they were customs or security people at the airport, working in the post office, at any of the museums, in bars or restaurants spoke English or not, not one single person was ever rude.
