Long Day

Patiently waiting to begin his first flight!

Here I sit in a lovely villa in Clermont, Florida.  All of my little family are still asleep, with the exception of our son who could not make it.  When we booked this trip just after Christmas, we hoped he would manage but it was always doubtful.  Then, after working freelance for months-holding his own in television production, he goes and lands a permanent job with one of the tv stations in London!   We are delighted for him, but that does not stop me wishing he was here too.  

However, he was lucky not to have experienced our journey over here. First, after paying extra to book seats on the plane and requesting 2 window seats, we were assigned seats.....Apparently what we paid for was to be kept together....not to be able to choose seats!  We did get one window seat and, for the first time in my married life, my husband did not sit there!  He graciously (?) gave up his seat for our 5 year old grandson's first flight!  And that was worth it.  He really enjoyed his window seat!  (Alan didn't really enjoy watching him sleep there though!)

This was a charter airline and has a good reputation.  They must base it on statistics I am not aware of.    There were no free drinks, such as water, offered at all, apart from the little drinks in the meal boxes and either undrinkable coffee or terrible tea.  and the " dinner" was a minuscule piece of chicken with a bit of tiny extras to pad it out.  I would have preferred no meal service and knowledge of this in advance so we could bring enough food to sustain us through the 9 hour flight.

We left Glasgow one hour late and arrived at Sanford Airport about 5:45, were first to get through passport check, probably because we were the only American travelling group on that plane!  That line was empty!   Sailed into baggage claim, looking forward to eating after our rationed meals, only to begin to hear rumblings.  Alan thought they might be thunder, I didn't and was I ever wrong!

An announcement informed us they could not unload baggage due to this storm and suggested everyone go find a seat and somewhere to wait.  Baggage claim is a secure area so no mobile phones or any battery operated devices are permitted to be used in it.  Boredom did not really set in that first hour......no food or coffee services here either. This is a part of the airport you usually just walk through after collecting your bags, lucky to have bathrooms here!  Instead, there were groups of families and friends sitting in circles on the floor, many of them fast asleep!

An hour later, another announcement, welcoming us to the Sunshine State (great sense of humor and everyone laughed) but then the bad news, no let up on the storm......after 2 hours, the cases began coming through!

Then ran the slalom of finding our car and getting directions to where we would go to get directions to our villa.   After an hour's drive, we found the office with villa information.  Almost 10pm and they close at 10.  Whew! 

Choices to make after an almost 24 hour journey!

Grabbed a quick McDonalds because we were famished by now and just after that, arrived at our villa about 11pm.   All of us fell into bed!

Now is a new day and time for Corbyn to meet Mickey!

“Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo.” -- Al Gore