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The VIP Lounge in Valencia was nearly empty. But well-stocked with chocolate milk.

Not many people on board the first of my three flights.

A long day of travel began at 2 a.m. when I woke up to watch the Santos Tour Down Under. Little did I know that this would mark a monumental day of monitoring races because later tonight – in the U.S. – I would be monitoring another stage of the race. Yes, two stages of the same race in the same day, due to the time difference. Who knew?

Anyway, once Stage 3 ended, it was a race to get the story written, audio files loaded and distribution performed. Scott Nydam was a huge help, moving my bags from here to there as I tried to finish my story while checking in. Thank goodness for Delta's Sky Priority lane, which hustled me through that process – and security – and into the VIP lounge to finish things off.

Then it was off to Paris where Scott and I did our best impressions of OJ Simpson, running from one terminal to another to get through security and onto different flights back to the United States. (He flew to Atlanta while I was going through Detroit.)

Dirty piles of snow greeted me in Paris.

I was seated in 11B for the eight-hour flight and the seat map online showed I (fortunately) had no one sitting next to me. Well, that is until a couple came on board and began eyeing the seat next to me. It was a strange thing. Was I sitting in their seats? Was one of them going to sit next to me? Were they getting the fact that I was shooting them back the evil eye?

Well, after they stood there for awhile and spoke to the flight attendant at the door and gone back up the jetway and back, the woman approached me and indicated she was going to sit in the window seat next to me. Okay, so I'm not going to have an empty seat next to me. Fine. But a few minutes later, in French, she told me her husband was up in business class and asked if I would switch seats. Switch seats with him? Of course, he can sit in Economy Plus while I enjoy first class service in the seat he paid for.

But there was a little something lost in translation. She wanted me to switch seats with her so she could have the aisle and go up and back to visit him. Uh, really? Whatever, I thought. I'll hunker down for eight hours with the bulkhead to prop my head against. But that scenario was short-lived because he soon returned and, not long after, whisked her not to business class, but to row 22 (not even Economy Plus) so the two could sit together. Strange. But good for me.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. I watched three movies – including "The Town" and "The Muppet Movie" and three episodes of "The Office." Regarding the latter, I'm not missing much by not catching it weekly on NBC.

Will this all fit in my new suitcase?

Yes. And it made the weight limit, too.