Circumnavigation of the World and a Valentine's Day Present

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Today we leave Morocco and fly back to Florida.  After 10 hours of flight time and a fuel stop, we will be back in Orlando, having completed our circumnavigation of the earth!

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel – splurged on eggs benedict for our last breakfast.  We were on the bus by 8:15 and off to the Marrakech airport.  I bought a few last goodies including a deck of cards and another cobra snake.

We had a final lovely surprise from the TCS staff. The crew had the plane decorated for Valentine’s day – red heart balloons, red heart confetti and pink and red M&M’s imprinted with the Taj Mahal – icon of love.  So sweet.

We had tea and pastries on the plane before landing in the Azores on the island of Terceira for a refueling stop.  We had to stay on the airplane, but they required that everyone has their seat belts OFF for the refueling. I suspect this must be in case rapid exit is needed due to fire?  The island is green and divided by rock walls into pastures – reminded Mike and me of Ireland.

Our last flight on the TCS 757 - Marrakech to Orlando, Florida, via the Azores

Happy Valentine's Day!

M & M's with the Taj Mahal - iconic symbol of love (that is, the Taj,
not the M & M's.)

Goodbye to Marrakech

The Atlas Mountains of Morocco - an extension of our own Appalacians, when you look at the ancient continent of Pangyra

NGTAW - an experience of a lifetime

In the last 2 hours of the flight, we had a champagne toast and Moroccan sweets to congratulate all on a successful expedition.  

I saw our first sighting of North American land with the coast of the Delmarva peninsula.  We also flew over Myrtle Beach and the coast of South Carolina.  We’re heading for a 4PM  landing at the Sanford airport in Orlando, where there are clear skies and it's 65 degrees.  Lovely way to end the trip.