Getting there

Well, it was quite the adventure. We received and email on Wednesday morning around 10 AM that we MIGHT be on a flight that evening. Thar said, we scurried around doing all of the last minute things that could be done only at the last minute, canceling utilities, last minute change of address, last couple of things packed and stored...you get the picture.

Then it was just a waiting game. At this point there are no more cell phones, no more internet access so, although we had email we had no access, so we had to find somewhere we could get online to access and borrow phones. At 4 PM when no confirmations or details had arrived, we called Washington who stated they had my itinerary but not David's. I asked for the itinerary to be emailed and found out it was on their internal server and I could not access it. I called back DC again and ask for the name of the travel agent, get my information, and then try to go online to print boardingpass..at this point we realize the ticket name and the passport name do not match. They had put my middle and last names together as a single name. Call the travel agent again to explain the problem and that took a while but finally another whole ticket is done. (Do you hear the tick, tick , tick of the clock in the background? We had to be on the road to the airport by 6 to make the flight and it is now well past 5 and neither of us has a boarding pass.) This time the name is misspelled. Now keep in mind we don't have David's information at all while this is going on. Again, a call to DC, again an entire new ticket is issued, it is now 6:05. Again a call, to get David's itinerary, finally at 6:20 we get all the paperwork together and fly out the door to the airport.

At the airport, we find out we cannot get boarding passes for all flights and the layover is so long in London that we may not be able to check the luggage all the way through. Oh goodie, a hundred or so pounds of luggage to drag around Heathrow...needless to say we won't be leaving the airport too check out London on the layover. We get to the gate with 20 minutes until we started to board. When you drive 75 mph it helps.

Finally on the plane. Fabulous flight to London. The second airline does not issue boarding passes until 3 hours before flight time, so no VIP lounge until then. Not fun.

Eventually we get the boarding passes and get to go to the lounge. We had internet access for about 10 minutes before it died and Shoe was the only person whose email I could answer before it went kaput. Sorry about that, but no one including most family had any idea we were on our way at this point. The upside, showers and clean clothes.

We then boarded the second flight, the domestic airline for the destination. It was quite the experience. The movies on the plane were reviewed for content. I thought my eyes were blurry because I was so tired, but no, all kinds of things were simply blurred so they could not be viewed, wine bottles, v-neck sweaters, you name it. The captain came on about 45 minutes from our desitination to notify us we were approaching domestic airspace and that those who needed to do things before we crossed that border needed to proceed with them. Instant wardrobe changes then ensued for those who were not already appropriately attired.

When you deplane you do so out on the tarmac, no terminal, even thought this is a very large and busy airport. You then take a bus to immigration services. The back story is that on one of the rare moments we had internet access, David had emailed my boss to tell him the specifics of our flight. We assumed that the US offices had communicated with those in-country. The return email conveyed his utter surprise as to our arrival as he had no idea we were coming. Because it was the weekend, he did not know if we would have accomodations and hoped someone could meet us and get us through customs. The anxiety level at this point is a tad high as we have no idea if anyone willbe there to help us. It is 5:15 AM local time and all I have is the address of the housing area, no specifics.

We went through immigration easily but even that was the first taste of things to come. I had to place my paperwork on the counter, then it is picked up by the individual at customs. David coud just hand his to the person. We walked through to the other side, grabbed luggage and hoped someone would be there. There was one American and it was my boss, who by some miracle was able to pull everything together and get us to our new home.