Got on the plane in Brussels around noon, after passing by a very suspicious security officer. She emptied my complete bag, and found 2 camera’s, an ELT, laptop, a video camera, a big pile of cash money, a collection of power cables for said equipment and some cell phones, a bunch of batteries. Looking at the mess she created, she apologized and let me alone trying to fit everything back into the bag which looked a lot smaller than at home. The next stop was London Heathrow, where the whole security circus started again. 8 hours of flying later, 19.00 local time, I arrived in Chicago. Again, they scanned my bag very meticulously, and multiple times, to check all the electronics equipment. This only added to my surprise that they missed my bottle of water I bought in London. One national flight later, I arrived in El Paso International, hoping to be in my hotel very soon. That was until I noticed my bag with all the charts and ferry tank equipment was gone… All panicky and frustrated –and being awake for 24 hours didn’t really help either- I filled in some paperwork, while mentally coping with the fact I would probably never see the bag again. I was promised the bag would arrive the next day at my motel. It didn’t.

My first US taxi was a typical Texas big car (or small truck). The driver had a white Cowboy hat, an dropped me of at my motel. Time for bed.