THE FLIGHT

Jess & Luke dropped us off at Terminal 5 Heathrow, the start of a great adventure! The EMBO cycle ride across the USA. The usual feelings of entering any airport filled my body with anxiety I know I hadn't flown since last year but the terminal was way in advance of what I had ever experienced, there wasn't the usual hustle and bustle of Thomas Cook package holiday makers with kids in tow it was all quite civilised, however that advanced we didn't know what to do! We edged our bets and stood in 2 seperate queues! after waiting for the person I front of me to finally get checked in it was our turn - Caroline did the talking and everything was going well till the bags were weighed, bearing in mind we had weighed them before we left and all were under, unfortunately for us our scales weren't the same as British Airways and the embarresment of trying to lessen the load was undertaken I front of a less than amused crowd, finally it was settled to the tune of £80 - thanks BA for assisting with the charity bike ride. At this stage I knew an upgrade was out of the question!
Once on the plane and a little bit of seat swapping and a 10 delay we took off -finally on our way to sunny climbs, well actually the pilot announced that the weather in San Diego was similar to London great! In flight entertainment was a Tintin film and a bland chicken meal with tonic water and lime (no gin) the remainder of the flight was quite uneventful and we landed in a blustery cold San Diego at 8:30 local time (4:30am - UK)
Once off the plane the US Customs didn't let me down, Biometrics, fingerprints and nearly an hour in line, however they were very pleasant - they must have a serious immigration issue here.
we were met by our old friend Rich Patchet who picked us up and took us to collect the hire car and onto the hotel, I think we would still be driving around if it wasn't for him. It was great to see him and have our own local tour guide to see us around San Diego and out of the town safely.