23 hours between sleeps

An 0600 alarm is a cruel awakening, especially after a restless night. But needs must, and with an aircraft to catch one dare not drift back into a doze.

Are two hours really needed to check the packing, set the heating, turn off the water and secure the house?

Then there was 15 minutes of waiting for the taxi driver, anxiety eased by the text message showing his car en route. Why, when a “good run” to Heathrow (easy traffic conditions) can be less than an hour, did it have to take nearly two hours? There was a slow start /stop crawl the last three miles to the M1, dense traffic and serious congestion at all the M1 junctions but relatively smooth traffic around the M25 to Heathrow’s Terminal 5 (about 25 miles).

There was a single lane crawl up to Terminal 5 and a strong police presence outside the building.

 With hold baggage checked in, passports and visas verified, security cleared it was a relief to finally reach airside.

It was then that the Captain confessed that he had dropped his phone on the roadway outside the terminal and that a passing taxi driver had spotted it and returned it to him… that was a mishap that Boatwif had missed entirely…

Time then to find coffee, to put the phones on charge and to watch the large screens for notification of the departure gate. There was a California/ Colorado /Port Eizabeth conversation with a passenger en route to South Africa.

Then, Gate B38. Descend (escalator or elevator, take your pick) to below ground level.  Crush onto the next below ground transit train that passes beneath one of the runways. (Where are all these other passengers heading off to…?)

Up the other side and trudge to the requisite gate. The waiting area was already crowded – this was going to be a busy flight.

Seats found, passengers settled and hold baggage loaded it was time for the safety briefing. Had British Airways taken inspiration from the New Zealand Airlines Hobbit-style safety film. On screen was a host of Georgian era characters in a Downton Abbey type setting – could the entertainment be a distraction from the impact of the messaging…?

The plane (an Airbus 350) joined a line of aircraft taxiing to the runway ready for take-off.

Then up, up, up… on the moving map display familiar names appeared. Far below in Liverpool was the Cheshire One and not far from Inverness was Scottish Sis…

Iceland

Greenland

Hudson Bay

Eight hours after take-off the aircraft crossed above the Canadian / US border into the airspace of the lower 48.

On the map Seattle and Spokane came into view. (Hallo, Cal Gal, down there at Washington State University in Pullman.)

The names of American states appeared on the map as the aircraft continued, heading south and west:

North Dakota

South Dakota

Wyoming

Colorado

Utah (This country is so vast, so empty. Below lay snowy ridges, rocky outcrops, sharp cliff bluffs…)

Nevada

Arizona (Then there was desert, vast rocky expanses.)

Onward, to… California

Rectangular lot shapes were seen on a valley bottom, then there was one last mountain range as the aircraft pointed due west and began to descend. Occasional hilltop dwellings gave way to planned urban neighbourhoods

and the plane lowered further, Mexico unseen on the left, San Diego’s historic Balboa Park on the right.  Below were the museums, the Naval Hospital, the Zoo and California Tower.

Down on the ground, the plane had landed ahead of the scheduled time. It had been a good flight.

Next though was the business of entry into the United States, often a painfully slow procedure. What joy then to walk through, line-free, to collect the luggage from the baggage carousel, to take two minutes (if that) at Border Control, to post the bags through a giant mouth of an X-Ray machine, retrieve them and then to emerge easily onto the street in late afternoon sunshine…

It was after midnight in body clock time, but a bed needed to be accessed first.  There was a hotel shuttle bus ride, a check in at a waterside hotel, a glimpse of boating activity and a slow small dinner. (“You have to adapt to local time,” the Captain insisted) before finally a bed could be approached.

The bliss of it - 23 hours after getting up it was good to get horizontal again.

 Miles flown: 5,469

Films watched: Wicked Little Letters; The Color Purple.

Podcasts listened to: 1