The trip back to NO was interesting to say the least. The flights were lacking in the drama they had contained flying home, but once again the crews failed to bring me my chair between flights in Dallas -- irritating in that I had to be pushed between planes, but more irritating in that the jerk-wads lost the knob off my joystick on the flight between ICT and DFW and I didn't know about it until I landed at MSY. Grr. Barney and Chad met me at the airport, and Chad's response to the lost knob was, "Well D---, that settles it. We're getting you the eight ball." Before I had left, he and I attempted to crazy glue said knob onto the rest of the joystick to prevent this, and in the process we speculated as to what could replace it if it were permanently lost. The eight ball won by a unanimous 2-0 vote.

Turns out me calling Barney and asking him to meet me at the airport was ingenious on my part, but not for the reason I had done it. You see, when I had arrived at ICT, my w.c. was in pieces and my mom had to put it all back together. Batteries back into their cases, covers back on cases, everything back on chair. I didn't trust airport personnel at MSY to put it back together since the numbskulls couldn't get it apart to visually verify my non-spillable batteries on the trip out (and that with me sitting there TELLING them what to do), so I asked Barney to come and help. He got Chad to come too, but the chair was assembled and functional when I got off the plane, but the w.c.-accessible shuttle I had arranged wasn't. I wound up having to take the bus home (cheaper but longer). Barney went with me on the bus, and Chad took my suitcase to the lab. He offered to take it to my apartment, and I was tired enough at that point that it never occurred to me to give him my keys to put it in the apartment and then put the KEYS in the lab for B and me to retrieve.

Anyway, so the airport bus goes to downtown NO, and helpful Aura at the airport info desk advised us on where to go from there. Take the airport bus to the end of the route, walk five or six blocks along Canal to North Peters and hop the Elysian Fields bus to campus. Piece of cake, just long. Well, piece of cake once the airport bus driver finally decided to let Reba and me on the bus. No, it wasn't initially a case of not knowing what a service dog is -- he wanted me to muzzle her. Uh, no. So I patiently (admirable on my part, I think, since my back was really starting to kick at this point, I was getting tired, and I had to pee) explained to him what a service dog is, that they don't need to be muzzled, etc., etc., blah blah blah. He was still resistant, so I asked him to get a supervisor on the radio. Fortunately the super on duty that evening was an enlightened woman who knew the ins and outs and told him Reba didn't need to be muzzled. Turns out his damage stemmed from a general fear of dogs. We finally got on the bus, and we were off.

While walking along Canal, I saw some interesting sights. Lots of loitering locals (not all of them prosperous folks), lots of tourists, lots of swank hotels. After crossing an intersection, I caught a whiff of lovely incense, and I immediately stopped to locate the source. Usually incense of that nature indicates an interesting shop or merchant, and this time it was a street merchant selling incense of his own mixing, some fragrance oils, and shell necklaces. He was a delightful man of Caribbean origin, and what I was smelling was actually two incense sticks burning at once. I already had the Nag Champa, so I bought a box of the other Indian kind, and at the last minute I added a bag of his personal mix that had an undertone of cinnamon. Two bucks even. Beautiful.
Hopped the EF bus and was in the final stretch toward home. Along that route, Barney and I discussed all the dining experiences I haven't had in my stay, and we decided a once-a-month lab lunch was in order. I don't think we'll have a hard time talking Hector, Sunil, and Chad into that one.

So, in the end, my plane arrived at 4:10, and I got to my apartment (after stopping at the lab to pick up my suitcase) at 7:55. Needless to say, I slept like a rock Friday night after unpacking everything and popping some ibu.

On a final note, I finally got my Lafayette pics back. They didn't come out as nice as I had hoped, but I'll try to figure out how to post some for ya'll to see.