Day 0: Leaving for London, 9 August 2014

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

No, wait, that's wrong. Well, not wrong, exactly. Well, you know what I mean.

Today is the first day of a 3-week vacation, and I'm headed off to Cardiff, Wales. After that it's London, England (for Worldcon), Dublin, Ireland (Shamrokon), Atlanta for Dragon*Con. and then back home to Tampa. Yes, I am going to three conventions, three weekends in a row, in three different countries. I am going to have a marvelous time, and I am going to be TIRED at the end! 8-)


My friend Corwin gave me a ride to the airport this morning (thanks again!!). He crashed on my couch last night so he wouldn't have to get up early to pick me up. I completely understand the concept of not wanting to get up any earlier than necessary. 8-)

Although last night there was a series of things cropping up to delay me, I actually did manage to finish packing, watch a movie (Wreck It Ralph), and get a total of 3 hours of sleep. This is pretty good, since I am often taking a 6:00am flight, and stay awake all night with no sleep. This time, it was a Noon flight I was aiming for. I say aiming because it didn't work out that way.

I wanted to arrive at 10am. We got here at 9:55, and that included a stop at the Post Office to drop a package being sent to Atlanta for Dragon*Con (nobody driving up had room for my tiny box of stuff, and I don't want to carry it around the UK and Ireland).

There was a lengthy line at the check-in kiosks, but it moved quickly, and I was done with that in 10 minutes and it was off to the train out to Terminal E. The Tampa International Airport is laid out weirdly, and the security checks are in each terminal, rather than being located in the center of the airport. This means you are not free to move between terminals, nor are you free to shop and dine in the main airport building.

I made it through the TSA public pat-down (I won't go through that millimeter wave detection machine). This one was rather more... personal than usual as the young woman was rather more enthusiastic than others I've suffered through.

I made it to the terminal in plenty of time to enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and a sandwich. And then the Noon flight to Detroit was full, and I was a mere two people away (only one person ahead of me) from getting on the plane. Sigh. The next flight was at 3:45, so that gave me about 4 hours to spend roaming the airport, and the internet.

Why didn't I get on that flight at Noon, you ask? I am flying standby. Part of my dad's retirement benefits from Delta Airlines is that he, his spouse (aka my stepmom), and his children still get to fly standby, whenever we want to endure the hassle. It still costs us money, just not as much. And it is refundable. I only do it when it saves me enough money to make it worth it. 

I can be a danger to my wallet when I am bored. I bought a scarf/shawl in one of the shops. It's really pretty, and has the advantage of being very light-weight, and doesn't wrinkle (a MUST for travel clothing). After that I picked a nice sunny window to sit by while working on my computer.

Typical Florida weather. This was my view when I sat down at a table to work on my computer. Nice, fluffy, white clouds.

This is my view from the same table, about 15 minutes later. You know that saying in Florida - if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it will change!

Fast-forward to 3:15pm. I wandered over to the gate to discover that the flight was delayed by 20 minutes, and I was 5th in the standby queue, with one open seat. Yeah, I knew I wasn't going to make that flight. The next one was at 6:45pm, and the gate agent who transferred the standby folks to the next flight said there were 15 seats open. The whole standby list should make it onto that flight! And it will arrive in Detroit with just over an hour before the last flight of the day to London Heathrow. 

That gave me another two hours to wander the airport. Okay, wander Terminal E. Not a lot of real estate to cover. I made my second walk from one end to the other and back, got a bowl of way-too-salty chicken noodle soup (I hate the prices of airport food), and found a workstation so I could charge my computer and my phone, both of which got a good work-out for the day. I nodded off, and awoke to the sound of someone saying my name. It was my friend, John Chambrone! He was headed to San Diego to visit his family, and was departing from a nearby gate. We chatted for a bit until it was time for us board our respective airplanes.

I made it onto the flight to Detroit! I WILL make it to London on the last flight of the evening. Whew! And I got a seat in First Class. That was very nice.

We landed in Detroit at Gate 75, and the next flight took off from Gate 34. The airport is HUGE, and looks nothing like I recall from back in the 1970s. It looks new and shiny, and there's an elevated tram to whisk passengers from one end of the terminal building to the other, with only one other stop, in the middle of the building.

There is also a rather large fountain. Instead of the water coming from the middle, it comes from the outside edges, and lands in the middle.


Stay tuned for the next bit on the flight from Detroit to London.