Home - or close to it.

As I wrote yesterday, we took a quick and pleasant train back to Gatwick Airport. (I found out much later, from an ex-Londoner, Gatwick is the way to go. He said Heathrow is constantly crowded, late and you circle forever before landing. He said new terminal 5 they're opening at Heathrow will be just more seating when you're waiting for something to happen.)

We'd been awake at 6ish London time and got to the airport at about 11am for our 1:30pm flight. Killing time at Gatwick isn't a problem, there's shopping, eating and people watching.

Our flight left on time and without incident. Six hours later we were in Halifax - it took us about an hour to clear customs, gather our luggage and get the rental car. With all the kerfuffle behind us, we were finally on the road. We'd agreed if I was tired after the plane, we'd stay in Halifax and come home the next morning. It was only about 530pm local time and I really wanted to sleep in my own bed so we headed home.

It's normally around 2.5 hours from Halifax to Moncton - unless you're in a hurry. We tottered along, I felt pretty good and we stopped in Truro (approximately half way) for a bite to eat. We got back on the road at about 630. At about 7ish, the sun went down and my brain said "Hmmm, it's about 11pm. I'm going to go to sleep."

It was then I realized I'd been a very very stupid boy. My brain was still on London time and the sun had kept me going. Now that it was gone, I was starting to fade. Fast.

The last 45 mins were pretty miserable. I took the wrong exit from the highway and lost about 20km getting turned around. As we approached home, I had to navigate a traffic circle and, well, I just couldn't. I managed to get in the centre lane and went around 2 or 3 times until there was no traffic, at which time I zipped over to my exit and got the rest of the way home. The universe was looking out for me. Thanks, I owe you one.

I avoided bed that night until I couldn't take it any more. And, you'd think I slept like a baby? Wrong, I snapped away are 3am (7am London time) and continued to do so for the next several days. No matter, I was home - the vacation had been wonderful and I had in excess of 1100 photos to wade through.

Tomorrow, a summary of what went wrong and what went right.