Day 10: Flying

Day 10

Well, for now, let's take it from the morning before takeoff. I woke up at 4:30am, and managed to nap again from about 6:30-8:30. That is what I will call Nap One. I bopped around the house till Mom finally dropped me off at the airport, with plenty of time before my flight. Security was a breeze and hardly took any time at all, even for a Monday morning. I had 3 hours to wait before my flight at gate D24, and I did so, oh so patiently, texting Ben with updates every hour that I was indeed still waiting. Finally, they lined us up, warning us that they probably won't have enough room in Zone 5 for all our carry-ons. I was pretty pissed about that, and indeed, they made everyone in Zone 5 check their bags. And not merely just drop them off and pick them up at our gate, they checked it for our final destination. Since my cousin, Sarah, had her luggage disappear last time she was flying internationally, I was not fond of this idea at all. All of my clothes were in there. I grabbed my meds, just in case, and growling, got on the plane.

My mood got better as soon as we took off. I love take-off, so much... the acceleration makes me happy inside. Plus, the pilot was actually funny. He instructed us to “Turn off all blackberries, strawberries, and other kind of berries” among the usual precautions. It made me smile. The flight was a little more than an hour before we plopped down in Charlotte, where I had a 3 hour layover. Better too much time than not enough, I figure. So I read, and texted my goodbyes, and got on the 6:25 flight for London. Love takeoff.

This time, the plane was BIG, and fairly plush. Plenty of restrooms kept traffic out of the two lanes. We each had a little screen, placed in the back of the seat in front of me. I bought the headphones for $5, which were worth it. I watched In Time. It was flashy and entertaining and kept me distracted for two hours (review upcoming). I tried to nap, fairly unsuccessfully. I got about three hours total of napping in (Nap Two), and spent the rest of the time pressing the GPS button in my screen so it would show me where I was. The two hours of movie and three hours of nap and hour of twiddling my thumbs added up to sunrise! London is five hours ahead.

One thing I did notice was that sunsets and sunrises (even when unnaturally close together) are really lovely from up in the atmosphere. My camera really didn't capture it, but take my word for it. Gorgeous. The clouds were their own terrain, with their own mountains, hills, and valleys. In the last few hours of my slight, the clouds cleared for the most part, giving me a an aerial view of Ireland. So now I can say that I've seen it, though I've never been there! I also got an aerial view of Exeter and the southern coast before we landed.