The Travel Adventure Begins

Travel can be an adventure. Sometimes the adventure is great fun and sometimes it is frustrating. On our journey from home to Flat # 11 Douglas Court, London we experienced all the ranges of the travel adventure…..and we mostly survived.

Maritza Fernandez picked us up right on time on Friday afternoon and we headed for the Orlando airport. She is an excellent and confident driver and though the traffic was dreadful she navigated our van easily to our destination.  

Check in with British Airways went smoothly. We long ago learned that for ease in an airport- especially for international travel- that we did better if we requested wheel chair assistance. So we had done that. Jorge Vazquez  arrived at the desk with two chairs and a smile on his face. He managed our two chairs safely, quickly, and cheerfully through the loooong TSA process. The lines were so backed-up that he even assisted the TSA folks by restacking some of those white bins so people could move along faster.  He got us to the Club World Lounge and promised to come back at 6:45 to take us to the gate.

The lounge serves about 8 airlines and was packed with many travelers. The hostess found us two seats and we settled in with a little wine to patiently wait. Jorge reappeared right as promised and we went to the gate.  The seats in Business Class on this plane were the strangest we have experienced.  3 A and 3B were side by side, facing each other. Jim was kind enough to take the window seat which put him in a tiny cocoon.  Each seat was sort of a plastic encased  world unto itself. The strange thing was itnstead of having an attached footrest that moved with the normal buttons there was a pull-down padded foot rest that if down meant the person in front of you couldn’t get out of their seat without stepping across the thing. Plus for someone short like me the only way I could use a footrest was to have the seat absolutely flat to sleep.  Nevertheless we settled in for  the journey.

Dinner was the usual airplane food. We enjoyed “Out of Africa” cashew nuts which came from Nairobi, Kenya- reminding me of my friend Susan Kamau in Nairobi. The plane engines were loud so even though we sat facing each other, Jim and I couldn’t really talk. Strange!

I think Jim was able to cover his eyes and ultimately get a bit of sleep. I couldn’t get settled to do that so I read and watched Hidden Figures. The movie was great! The reading was fine and morning came quicker than I would have thought.

Getting off the plane took a little longer than planned because of lack of wheel chairs. The crew was so pleasant as we chatted while they waited for me to be transported. The airport employee did a grat job navigating the Immigration lines and helped us get our baggage. We got to the Arrival lobby and the fun really began.

We were to be met by a driver arranged and paid for through TravelBound. Done it before and never a problem. There was nobody there waiting for us. The cart driver used his cell and called the company and they said they’d contact the driver and we should wait in the Costa Coffee Shop. So we found a table and waited. After about 15 minutes I tried to call the company and my cell wouldn’t connect. Quickly I called son Bill and he made contact with the company. They contacted their driver who said he had us in his car. We all said “WHAT” ….what to do now. Bill kept talking and they agreed to send the driver back. 

Finally in about 45 minutes the driver appeared. Someone had come, claimed to be us, gotten in his car, fallen asleep for the long drive into the city while we waited, worried and got a bit panicked . The driver woke the guy up and turns out he was to have a driver through this same company but the man’s name was Scott something. We saw a driver standing there all the time with that name on a sign . The man told our driver he had had 4 glasses of wine on the plane, but I really fail to understand how he could confused James Barnett with Scott something. Felt sorry for the driver because he was out the time, the gas and the parking for the mistake. Bet he asks for an ID from now on.

We had a pleasant drive through pretty slow traffic and arrived at Bill and Katherine’s flat. Smiling Ethan greeted us at the door. Jack and Bill came down the stairs and after hugs and welcomes they managed our luggage up the many stairs.

We had a delightful tour of the flat- more about that later- and settled in for a great catch-up time together. Katherine and Michael had planned to greet us and then head off to a matinee.  BUT since we were very late arriving, they had gone on.

Bill gave us a good demonstration of an electronic sound mixing board we contributed to for his birthday. Was fun to learn all about this.

When they got home from the play Bill cooked a grand dinner and we had fun eating and laughing. Tried to watch a James Bond movie but had to give it up as sleep overtook us all. The bed felt good!  Nice to be with this part of our family and to have travel eased by lots of caring people. 

Much for which to give thanks to God!