Transit

Just a quickie for those of you who might read this before I see/email/call you.  I'm in Chicago waiting for the last flight of my journey.  With a little bit of time to spare, I'm typing basically to stay awake.  Forgive me for awful spelling and sentence construction.  (More than normal, that is!)

Paul was to pick me up at 6:30 am this morning in London to drive Angelina and I to the airport.  He rang me up at 6:30 and said, "We have a problem.  My heater isn't working and I can't defrost my windows.  I think we'll have to take the tube."

I cringed at the thought of tubing it with three 50 lb suitcases and two carry-on items.  Even with the three of us to each have a bag, this meant being on the tube during the rush hour of everyone getting to work.  That is never fun, but it's brutal with suitcases.

Fortunately, he changed his mind about five minutes later and rang back to say, "Never mind.  I've called a cab.  We'll be there soon."

Laus and Jo had woken up to say goodbye.  Bless her, Laura made me a cup of tea to have while we waited.  Sadly I couldn't finish it before Paul got there, but oh it helped.

The 20 mile trip to the airport took about 2 hours.  I won't miss that aspect of London.

Once at the airport, I checked my bags with minimal difficulty.  I still needed to pay extra baggage fees, but at least none were overweight.  Then, Jay, Paul, Val, and Angelina and I had a nice breakfast at Cafe Rouge before I needed to go through security.

It wasn't until I sat in my seat on the mostly empty plane that I started to get watery eyed.  I'll admit, I cried a little, but by the time we were levelling out in the air, I was good to go.  Sadly, I couldn't sleep though!  I just couldn't sleep more than 20 minutes, even though I only slept about 3 hours last night.

Now, I've gone through Immigration and Customs and collected and rechecked and rescreened and all those fun steps.  I'm waiting at my gate for my next flight and after a nice long hug from my parents, my head needs a pillow.  It's already past 11 p.m. in London and my body feels it.  I know I'm tired because my gate is right next to a Starbucks booth and I feel no desire to get my usual cafe latte.  I really really know I need sleep because I actually can't remember what book I read on the flight.

Until Pennsylvania...