Jackie and I were up at six and ready to go by eight, which was entirely unnecessary, as we didn’t need to hit Gatwick until 10am. We got on the Express Route this time and went through the lengthy check-in process before reaching the Waiting Area.
For once, the girls got picked for a security check. :) Unfortunately, they had our luggage and we had theirs. :(
Gatwick Airport doesn’t put much in the way of facilities near the actual gates, so their waiting area in the middle of the terminal is really more of a gigantic cattlepen cum mini-mall. We had lunch there, used up the last of our local currency bugying up last-minute souvenir/gifts and some books we’d been putting off.
The boarding went normally, though the plane’s load was fuller this time around and we didn’t have a spare seat in our row. The movie on this flight was Sweet Home Alabama (subliminal message: “It’s good to be going home!” :P), followed by S1m0ne. I managed to contain my glee.
It’s a little-known fact of international politics that Coke and Pepsi have divided up the world. Only in the U.S. do the two compete for market share. Britain is a “Coke” country (probably due to the CIA’s long-standing relationship with British Intel) — you can certainly buy Pepsi at grocery stores and some convenience stores, but everything else is Coke. I liked it.
It was mildly annoying to ride home Via Northwest, a pepsi-aligned airline. Ahh well: welcome home indeed.
The two movies wrapped up within thirty minutes of the Detroit landing. By this point, I was getting sinus headache that promised to keep me company until we got all the way home, so I didn’t think it was a very good idea to hang around everyone during our layover — I went to the pay phones and arranged for our pick-up at DIA.
The flight to Denver was badly overbooked. NW’s offer to wait til the morning flight was tempting: one round-trip ticket anywhere in the US/Carribean per person, 2000 frequent flier miles, dinner and a hotel for the night, and First Class seats the next day to the first five volunteers. Tempting… for all of ten seconds before we realized how much we just wanted to get home.
It’s a lot more comfortable flying to London than flying back. Going out, you transfer from a cramped plane to something slightly more accomodating for the longer leg — doing the reverse after 4 hours in Gatwick, 7 in the air and 2 in Customs/Detroit — that sucks.
Then it was DIA, luggage, Randy driving home and sleep sleep sleep oh glorious sleep.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the trip.
