Ireland 2010
  
 

Day 01

June 10

  
 

Our Continental flight to Houston does not leave until 11:45 so we have some time before we have to be at the airport. Flying nowadays is a mixed bag - you never know how long it will take or what it will take to get through airport security - so I always plan to be there several hours before flight time. I stock our two dogs up, knowing our friends will be by frequently to check on them and feed them as needed. Sharyn has decided to board our 5 inside cats at our vet rather than have our friends have to care for them, so we quickly sweep them up into the carriers (which they are not at all fond of) and take them in. With that bit of business taken care of, we head out in my old brown Chevy pickup toward the airport. I used to work right across from the airport for many years, so I know that the Shoneys out there is pretty good. The main drag has lots of restaurants so the competition is pretty fierce. If you're not good, you don't last long in that corridor. After a delightful buffet, we make our way to long term parking, lock up the old truck, and grab the shuttle bus to the airport. After we check in, I watch our checked luggage go through security, just to make sure there are no surprises. When you pack motorcycle gear with wires and some tools, you just never know what can happen. We have our helmets, riding suits and my netbook in our carry on luggage, just in case our checked bags don't make it. Much to our surprise, we whizz right through security and are at the gate early - which is much better than being there too late. I can't get a free wifi connection, so I just give it up and wait. Soon our bird to Houston shows up and I tell Sharyn -

"They'll hand check our bags at the end of the walkway, so be sure to take anything with you that might get hurt".

And sure enough we do, and they do, and we're off to Houston.

  
   
  It's a smaller jet, but at least it's not a prop job and we manage to find our seats, Being my size, I just do not fit in a seat very well. I'm too wide and my legs are too long to be average. But at least it's a short flight in the cramped cabin.  
   
  When we put down in Houston, it's a pretty day. Lots of other birds are pulled into the gates. We don't have to be in a big hurry to get off because I've given us plenty of connect time. If I am flying overseas, I always try to plan my flights so there is lots of time for my luggage to make the connection. I know we've got to 'hit the ground a runnin' when we get to London to make the ferry to Ireland so we would have no time to wait on missing luggage. Hopefully my planning will work - at least it works in my own head.  
   
  When we make it to our gate in Houston, I snap a picture of what I think is our plane. As it turns out, it is the right type of plane, but our Boeing 777 is out the other window.  
   
  Things are looking good as we board our bird right on time. It seats a lot of people and we have the last two seats on one side of the plane. When I was booking our reservations, there were only two spots that had just two seats together. They are the last row on either side of the plane and I booked the same on the coming and going flights. I figure they might be a bit noisy, but at least we won't have someone crawling over us to get to the bathroom. Plus we'll be right next to the bathroom and galley so we'll have plenty of room to stretch our legs if we need to move about during the 9+ hour flight.  
   
 

Once we are on and wedged into our seats, we relax and wait for the normal safety lecture and such. The way I have it figured, we should have about 2 hours to spare between getting the rental VFR1200 in London and the necessary travel time to get to the overnight ferry from Swansea to Cork. But the 'the best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, gang aft agley' to borrow a line from Mr. Burns. A flight attendant suddenly announces -

"The ground crew have told us that there is a problem with the aircraft. A maintenance panel will not shut and they will have to repair it."

I figure it shouldn't take long, but you can hear the collective sigh from the entire cabin. I've still got my 2 hour buffer so we should be okay. As I watch my 'buffer' disappear announcement after announcement I can hardly believe it. First they don't have the parts, then they can't get the screws out of the door, and it goes on and on for 2 1/2 hours. I am beginning to wonder if Continental has Laurel and Hardy working for them in maintenance. I watch as my buffer completely disappears. Finally they decide that they can tape the door shut and we can fly. And as Laurel and Hardy (whether they were working in maintenance or not) would put it - "Well, this is another nice mess you've gotten me into!" Continental Airlines has personally forced us to make a mad dash to the ferry. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to sort it out when we get to London and hope they make up some time in flight. At least we don't have a connecting flight to catch.

  
   
  My standard routine for flying to Europe is to try to go to sleep right after super is served. If I can get some snooze time, then I stay up the day of landing until the bedtime there and my body clock resets to local time. So as the sun goes down I hope that my eyelids will follow suite soon thereafter.  
   
  Super is typical airlines fare - not bad, not good, not much. But at least they have a decent dessert. With that disposed of, I wish my lovely wife a good night and I try to get comfortable as I can. Pretty soon, at least this plan works.