Day 15. Wednesday 7th October
Getting up at 3.45, yes, that's a.m., we got our belongings packed into our suitcases ready for the journey home, and, equally as important, our travel documents and airline tickets. The morning call came all too soon at 4:45, and the luggage was collected from outside our rooms at 5:15. After checking our rooms to see if anything was left, we walked along to the reception area, arriving at 5:25, to await the transport to Los Angeles LAX International Airport. Venturing outside into the cool morning, shrouded by heavy mist, we manhandled the suitcases and flight bags into the bus, which left at 5:40 for the, shorter than expected, journey to a change-over point to meet an airport shuttle bus. Waiting outside in the relative cold until 6:00, seemed to take an age, but, eventually, the bus arrived to take us the last leg to LAX.
Checking in at the American Airlines desk at 7:10, we were scheduled for a near two hour wait. The main topics of the, albeit muted, conversation, were the memories of the places we'd seen and experiences shared over the past fortnight. The flight having been called, and safely finding our seats, mine 36C, we settled down for the flight. The aircraft pushed back from the gate exactly on schedule at 9:00 and by 9:15, we'd taken off and started the climb to our transcontinental cruising height of 37,000 feet.
Air travel being the generally boring activity that it is, the time slipped slowly by until mealtime, this actually being breakfast. The menu we selected comprised pancakes and maple syrup, not, unfortunately as good as Dennys, Las Vegas, and smoked ham. I had melon and kiwifruit along with a fruit bun or brownie, iced water, orange juice, coffee and yogurt raisins. The flight stretched on and on and on, and on, but at 5:06, Eastern Time, we touched down for the second time at New York JFK airport, and after taxiing for seeming miles, we arrived at the gate at 5:13.
This time, we didn't need to collect our suitcases from the carousel to take them to the connecting flight as the airline had arranged their transfer. This certainly eased the hassle that we had experienced during the previous transfer. We had to arrive at the check in desk earlier than 6:00, so decided to base ourselves in the lounge right from the start. After check in, we had a further hour's wait until the 7:00 departure time for home, and after reaching my seat, 25 A, on schedule again pushed back to taxi out to the runway. On the way out, we passed a Concorde.
The wait to take off behind a long queue of aeroplanes ended at 7:35, when we lifted off for the climb to 37,000 feet. During the initial climb phase, at 7:37, the aircraft turned very sharply to port, but after our initial trepidation, our Boeing 767 righted itself and continued upward. Shortly after, the flight deck personnel informed us, over the public address system, that we'd flown through the wake of a Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jet' that had passed through our airspace shortly before. All together now, oooh!
During the flight into the night, north, parallelling the coasts of New England and Eastern Canada, until, inevitably, feeding time came around. This time, after the salad, brought the biggest chunk of salmon that I'd ever seen, with a mustard sauce, very good, but too much fish, with pink peppercorn butter and vegetables. For dessert, I had 'Gelato' banana fudge ice cream, followed by coffee and the obligatory iced water. We flew onward into the night...