After an overnight at the Hilton Heathrow, we are back in the same seats on the plane for the return, first to Houston, then on to Albuquerque. The seat belt sign was on for the first two and a half hours of the flight, for no obvious reason—just a few little bumps. In fact the head of service for the flight said early on that we did not expect any rough weather until possibly over Newfoundland and then as we descend into IAH.

I have noticed that non-American airlines are much quicker to turn off the seat belt sign than any American companies.

Since Philip and I each tossed a few worn out garments and shoes on the trip, and since we didn't buy much, our luggage is no heavier nor bigger than it was on the outbound journey. We carried on and expected a quicker transfer at Houston than we would have had if we had had to wait for baggage claim before Customs. As it turned out, it was great that we had carried on all our luggage. The customs and immigration service in Houston has a new, one-stop lane for people who have not checked bags. We walked up and waited only a few minutes to talk to one person about both customs and immigration. The line to go through the traditional line was long, long.