- We got up in the morning and headed to the airport. Steve had given us a 500-peseta piece to ensure we
had enough money for the taxi ride. We checked in for our flight and took some pictures of a statue
in the main terminal area. In front of the statue, a small boy was playing "catch" with his father
using his stroller--it was really funny to see this little kid shooting his stroller to his dad fifty feet away.
We quickly grabbed some lunch before we took off
The flight to London Heathrow was uneventful. It seemed a bit strange to hear English as a primary language again (it was a British Airways flight, after all). It was about two-and-one-half hours from Barcelona to London - We had a short layover in London, but we needed the time to change terminals for our flight to Chicago. We didn't realize it until we arrived in London that we had horrible seats for our long flight to Chicago (we had the middle two seats in the four-seat center section). We didn't see a place to check-in and change our seats at the gate, however. We sat in the main part of the terminal for twenty minutes or so before we realized that we weren't really in the waiting area for our gate (what appeared to be our gate was actually a corridor that took us to the gate area). Thinking we might be able to get our seats changed, we headed down the corridor to the gate area. Unfortunately, they took our tickets along the way and we were committed to our lousy seats for the 8+ hour flight
- We took our seats on board and silently hoped that no one would take the aisle seat next to me so we could stretch out a bit. Just about the time we thought it might remain open, a man sat down--we were kind of bummed. In the end, we got lucky. He wanted an open seat next to him too, so he moved to the very back of the plane just prior to departure. It made the flight much easier to have three seats between the two of us
- The flight left at about 3:30 PM (which is 8:30 AM Dallas time), so I decided to try and stay awake for as much of the flight as possible (trying to get accustomed to the new time zone). I read most of the way while Lisa finished her book and worked on some crossword puzzles. I took a couple of quick 30-minute naps, but I stayed awake the rest of the time. It was easier to stay awake because it never got dark during our flight
- We arrived in Chicago at about 6:00 PM, and we were able to collect our bags and go through customs pretty quickly. As luck would have it, there was an American Airlines desk just outside the area where we arrived, so we were able to check in for our flight to Dallas. We were booked on a flight that left at 8:30 PM, but they put us on the stand-by list for a flight that left at about 7:15 (she said there were only about four people on the list, so it looked good for us). We were starting to get really tired and a bit punchy, so the woman gave us detailed directions on how to get to the right terminal and gate
- When we arrived at the gate, it was a mob scene. There looked like a lot of people waiting to get on the same flight, so we decided to check-in at the gate even though we were already on the stand-by list. Much to our dismay, the woman at the desk told us that we were not on the stand-by list (and the list was long enough that she was about to close it). We asked a few questions trying to figure out what happened, but she insisted we weren't on the list. Finally, we showed her our baggage claim checks (which showed they were on the 7:15 flight), and she suddenly found us on the list (I still don't know what happened)
- We were so tired and wanted to get on the flight so badly, but it didn't look good for us in the crowded waiting area. To make a long story short, we we one of the first people called on the stand-by list, so we made the flight. We were booked in the bulkhead, however, so we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to get our carry-on luggage on board (everyone else on the plane had boarded ahead of us). In our sleep-deprived state, we had a hard time figuring out where to stuff our bags, but we were eventually able to switch rows with some kind people (who probably took pity on us) and we stuffed our bags under the seat in front of us
- Even with the earlier flight, we didn't arrive in Dallas and collect our luggage until shortly before 10:00 PM. Since I had a 6:30 AM flight to Houston (for a meeting with Schlumberger), we raced home and went straight to bed (straight to bed just after I scanned my e-mail, of course!). It was a short night, and I got up the next morning before 5:00 AM