Flight Home - Day 8

The last morning of our trip, we woke up super early. We had originally planned on just bringing all of the cell phones and their testing equipment back with us in our suitcases, but Brian had forgot that there was a very large emergency battery pack in the back of the car that was part of the gear. Because the battery pack was so heavy we decided to ship it back and therefore, included the rest of the test equipment in the package along with it. Luckily our flight wasn't until noon, so we had time to stop of and get it shipped. 

We showed up at the UPS store near our hotel at 7:30 am. They didn't open until 8 am so we just sat in the car eating our breakfast and chatting. Finally the store opened and we were able to get that all squared away. It didn't take as long as we had planned, so we had plenty of extra time to get to the airport.

The next stop was to drop off the car. Since the cars were directly from Ford and not from a rental agency, we had to drop the car off at a place called The Parking Spot. We had instructions to leave the keys and parking ticket with the booth attendant and then call Ford's contact in San Antonio who would later come and pick it up. The booth attendant was very confused when we tried to explain what was going on. Finally we were able to make him understand and we were directed to park our car in a specific section. Then a shuttle bus to the airport picked us up. We put the keys and parking ticket in an envelope, sealed it and then wrote Brian's name and phone number on it along with the name and phone number of the contact person. We gave the envelope to the shuttle driver, who gave it to the booth attendant as we passed out of the parking lot. Whew! All that just to drop of the car. We made it to the airport where we checked our bag and went through security, which all went smooth and quickly. We ended up being at the airport two hours early, plus our flight was delayed 45 minutes because of bad weather in New York. The wait wasn't bad, because it was nice to not be driving, and to have everything taken care of. 

We finally boarded the plane and ended up in front of a couple that was very loud and obnoxious. They both kept putting their knees on the back of our chairs. Brian and I were so tired from all our travelling and our extra early start that we were able to sleep through most of it. However, near the end of the flight the people started singing loudly and we decided that it was time to get off the plane! We flew over NY around 4:30 in the afternoon, and it was so cool to see the city from the plane in daylight. This is the first time we've flown into NY when the sun was still up. It was really neat and I wish I could have had my camera on to take a few pictures. 

We picked up our bag and took a taxi home. It was so nice when we walked through our front door. Although we had a lot of fun, it was a tiring trip. Apparently we did everything right, and did such a good job testing, that Brian was asked if he would do it again next year. We definitely plan on it if we are still in NY in a year. Next year we want to take the Georgia/Florida leg of the trip, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.