The journey home

I was able to check in early and divest myself of those suitcases.  Got a chance to leisurely check out the duty-free stores (where I picked up action figures (their term) of Moshe Dayan, David Ben Gurion, and Golda Meir).  Those will be handy in doing Israel outreach.  They're really cool. Eventually, it was time to board, and there we had our carry-on bags hand-searched.  On my out-going flight, El Al had eliminated the lengthy interviews (I heard that on the news in March).  We're not allowed to bring filled water bottles onto the plane.  I'm not sure why, but that's what the check was mostly for.

I had a window seat.

My engineering geekness was in great form.  This was a 747, which is a big plane.  Four engines.  Big wings.  Really big control surfaces.  Wow.  I think there were about 500 passengers.  Food was good, and the usual El Al service was wonderful.

So land in JFK.  Now they have passport check-in kiosks, where you check yourself in.  I was a little over the $800 customs allowance, so I got to have extra discussions.  When I finally got to customs (for which I was fully-prepared:  checkbook, enough time, all declared things in one suitcase), the officer asked how much I had to declare:  $1050.  He asked what - he didn't ask me to put the suitcases up on the counter, and I started:  these running shoes (the ones on my feet), the phone, some fabric (which was the Damascus silk brocade), and souveniers (including $100 from duty-free).  He says that the duty-free doesn't count against my $800 limit.  He was in a good mood, I was nice. It was 0600.  He says, 'you only have to pay 3% on the overage.  3% of $100 is $3.00.  Have a nice day, lady.'  We smiled, laughed a little, and I moved on.

I got some cash (for the taxi), a taxi to La Guardia, and got checked in at Southwest.  Weird thing:  my one suitcase gained 5 lbs after leaving Tel Aviv.  I didn't add anything.  But now, I had to take stuff out and add it to my carry-on.  She agreed that 50.5 lbs was close enough.  Phew.

I walked right past the food court, I guess, which would have been my only opportunity for pretty-real NY pizza.  At 0700.  Would they even have been serving pizza at that hour?  I did not eat pizza in Israel.  Really.  I just ate Israeli food. I was hoping for NY pizza in NY, and some Chicago pizza in Chicago.  Well, I did get some competent, but not Chicago deep-dish, pizza at Midway Airport.  Did get some Dunkin Donuts coffee in NY - some consolation.  I like Dunkin Donuts.  And then I landed in Kansas City.  Home again.