I write the beginning of this post from Newark on the plane that hopefully gets us to Madrid tomorrow! Yahoo...but what an adventure. I woke up at 2:00 AM, which seems to be the norm on travel days these days. I laid in bed until the NyQuil wore off of Denise around 4:30 AM. We both got up, got ready and sat down and watched this weeks Parenthood until one of our wonderful sons picked us up at 6:00AM and drove us to the airport.
At the SLC airport, we had 3 shots 2 through ORD (Chicago) and 1 through IAH (Houston). Twice it came to us with only one seat....and we had to let it go. We did not want to split up. All three of these flights left us. It now became an exercise to see how far and how close we could get but always thinking we would miss the Madrid flight. Well, we finally were given seats on a flight to Houston that would connect with a flight to EWR (Newark)...which had lots of seats out of Houston. However, the IAH flight to EWR was scheduled to arrive at 8:15 PM...our Madrid flight was scheduled to leave at 8:10.... We would just miss it even though the gates between the flights seemed relatively close (arriving at C85 and leaving at C71. As we ascended into the skies, the captain announced that we should arrive at the gate 10 minutes early. That was our break and our hope. And we did actually arrive 10 minutes early. So once we were off the plane, I began to run. We have done this drill a number of times now. When I arrived at the gate, there was no attendant at the desk. There was no one except a few people sitting in seats and one happened to be an attendant. The plane was still there so I asked if it was too late to get on. She said she would check. She asked if there were others. I said that my wife was running up the terminal. Once again, we got on out of breath...which led to coughing attacks...and sweating a bit. Fortunately this plane is half full. We went right to the back and grabbed a whole row for each of us. Nice!
I have to say that in all cases, the United employees have been gracious and really wanting us to succeed in getting to Madrid. And their support has worked.
Well, tomorrow is another adventure. I was able to book my hotel in Sevilla while on the plane. So the next task is to get us to the main train station (Atocha) in Madrid and then a train to Sevilla. And then I will relax and hopefully sleep.
Hasta la mañana!
Midnight movies on the plane to Madrid.
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