October 11, 2015
Home sweet home
I made it home. After 27 hours of traveling, I was pretty wiped out.
I left the hotel by taxi at 3:30 am. I needed the taxi to fit the bike box. At the airport, I found I needed a 1 TL coin to get a luggage cart, and was very glad that I had one left. I had tried to spend all of my coins the previous evening, and was left with just 1.25 TL. With the luggage cart and my bike box, I made my way to check-in and was sent to a payment office to find out how much I would be charged for the bike, and of course to pay it. I was quite happy to be charged the KLM bike rate of 85 euros, which I think is the same as the 2nd bag fee. Hurray! I was on a Delta code share operated by KLM, and was worried that I would be charged the Delta rate of $250 plus the second bag fee of $95. The bike was checked all the way home, and I was given a receipt that showed that all three flights were paid for.
The flights went smoothly and were on time.
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As expected, I had to collect and re-check my bags in Atlanta, my first entry into the US. The bike box had a couple of holes in it.
I had to take it to a TSA checkpoint for large luggage to re-check it, and I asked the TSA agent if he could tape up the holes. It looks like he taped the largest holes, and also opened the box for inspection. Here's the box as it arrived at Colorado Springs.
Not too bad. I've since reassembled the bike, and it is fine.
My cheap bag, on the other had, didn't really survive the journey. The small wheels on the bottom were damaged and the fifth wheel at the center was pulled off altogether. The plastic stiffener on the bottom was also broken.
Good thing I didn't expect to re-use this bag!
So....home, sweet, home. Now life starts anew.
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