Nightglow Window

Friday, July 16, 2010

The Way Home

Even the best and most exciting roller coaster becomes a bore after too long--or makes you sick. No, at a certain point satiated ceases to mean satisfied and begins to mean that there's no more room. Filled to excess. No more opportunity for experience. Time to go home.

And so we do, by way of the Chateau Gruyeres where I once stood agog as a boy, fresh from reading Lord Of The Rings for the first time. It's still impressive and beautiful, a fitting end to our time in Gruyeres and Switzerland.

But at the border that warm afterglow fades. Border agents notify me that I'm lacking the road-tax sticker on the rental car and I have to pay a fine. I must come with them, they tell me. "Bring your wallet," says the younger guard. "It's always the wallet," I reply. Fifteen minutes later I'm still stewing over the $145 fine I had to pay, a rictus of disgust on my face as I climb once more behind the wheel.

The traffic along the much touted Autobahn leaves me irritated as well. The plaque of construction clots the arteries of this famous highway every 5 kilometers, the drivers impatient and shoaling like fools. Time for home.

All else goes smoothly and a bit of my insouciance returns -- especially with the wonderful service of Singapore Air.

New York City is hot: 90 and humid. We walk in Central Park and wilt. Sydney, especially, is on her last straw. But we rally once more at the Natural History Museum where we rocket through the exhibits, swimming through the blissful air conditioned air. Dinner in Soho with Heidi, a short sleep, early walk to a Times Square Starbucks, lousy cab ride to La Guardia, and soon we are in Chicago.

Originally this was the big hurdle at the end of the race, and 11-hour layover. But after some earnest pleading with United's Customer Service department (and some well-timed words from Hannah) we were on the next plane out to L.A. In fact, we were home and opening the windows before we were even scheduled to depart from Chicago. And that, at the end of the best trip ever, was the happiest ending I could have asked for.