Travel

There are those days when everything just goes right!

My car arrived a few minutes early yesterday morning. Which is a good thing because I had already finished with everything I needed to do back in Thames Ditton and was waiting for him to arrive.

The drive to the airport was completely uneventful and the driver and I had a very pleasant chat as we wended our way cross-country from Thames Ditton to Gatwick. It was a lovely day and, though rain was predicted, the skies remained clear, the roads good and there was surprisingly little traffic.

Even the usual hassle of getting through Gatwick was no problem. My airline checking counter had no line whatsoever. I walked up, was immediately met by both the greeters who took turns asking the security question (I think they were bored) had my passport checked and proceeded directly to one of the four empty checking desks. Check-In completed, I wended my way through the crowds waiting at other airline counters and made my way through the security screening point. (Which again was no big deal.)

The only negative thing that happened yesterday was the failure of the handle on my rolling computer case to extend. I had to carry my case, but then I bought a rack at one of the duty-free stores and that was solved too. I had a leisurely breakfast at the restaurant in the main terminal then made my way down to the gate. Boarding began shortly thereafter and was finished pretty quickly.

In the air, I rode a cross the Atlantic with a delightful little girl named Lilly and her Gran. Poor little thing, it was her first trip and she was a bit upset about leaving her parents, but when she started telling me all about how she was going to her cousins' house in California and how she would be staying a couple weeks, she started to get more animated. She had a card game that she had brought with her that she and her Gran had tried to figure out. I helped them with the directions and then we played a few games. The flight passed pretty quickly.

There was a bit of a hassle trying to get through the immigrations line at Minneapolis (in that it seemed to take forever to get our luggage back) but once cleared and luggage dropped at the checking, I walked directly to my gate, as the boarding was being called.

The flight home was also uneventful. I sat next to a nice lady from the other side of town who is a surgical nurse and was concerned about the sniffling I was having, but once I showed her the prescription allergy pills that I had forgotten to take on schedule because I had been flying so long that day, she relaxed. Taking one, made my symptoms clear almost immediately.

Even the baggage claim was amazing. I just knew that the baggage was not going to make it because of the brief time I had between the time I cleared Customs and the time my flight took off. But as I was thinking about checking with the baggage claim person the bags popped off the conveyer. Even the van ride back was no big hassle. There were nine people on the van but six of them were dropped at the first stop so I was at home in just over an hour.

Of course, the best part of the entire day was the pure, unadulterated elation that Saga displayed when she saw daddy on the front porch. It was so heart-warming to see her that I sat on the porch petting her for about an hour before I ever took the cases into the house. Later, we went on a little drive down to Sonic where she got one of her favorites: Tater Tots with Cheese!

I hope that wherever you are today, you have a day that just falls together this easily!

Don Bergquist - 19th June 2006 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA