I'm Here!!

Well, I've arrived, and let me tell you - it was quite an adventure. I'll post pictures later, but for now...I'll relay the trip.

So I was supposed to fly Tyler to Houston to Detroit to London Heathrow to here. First the power was out in the Tyler airport. The WHOLE airport. How does an airport operate without electricity??? I don't know! So they checked us in by hand. Yes, by hand. They can do that. They wrote my luggage tags by hand. I knew this had to be bad. I had to pay for excess baggage in cash (thank you Mommy! I wouldn't have had it without you!), but since my booking was with British Airways but I was checking in with Continental, I had to pay Continental, despite telling them that the BA assured that I would only have to pay BA and not anybody else. So now I was afraid that I would have to pay twice, which would amount to a total of almost $500. Yikes! That's almost my whole paycheck this month! I can't do that!

Albeit delayed (and with no electricity), I made it out of Tyler and on to Houston. I had to check in again with BA and the guy asked me if I had paid for my excess baggage. I explained to him the situation and he said that I still had to pay BA but he would speak to his supervisor. Well, there were terrible thunderstorms all over Texas so flights were being delayed like crazy, so he was one busy man. My flight was delayed, and then delayed, and then canceled, so he had the lovely task of re-booking everybody on my flight. Amidst the craziness, he chose not to pursue payment for my luggage. Finally I made it on a plane to London Gattwick. They gave us all bus passes to go from Gattwick to Heathrow to catch our connecting flight, but that meant I would have to pick up my 3 suitcases and guitar in Gattwick and transfer them with me.

Upon arrival in Gattwick, my luggage was nowhere to be found. So I spoke with the lost luggage desk and after much searching (both physically and in the computer), it was discovered that my luggage was truly lost. I also was going to miss my flight out of Heathrow, so I was re-booked on a later flight out of Gattwick. If you didn't know, the London airports now have new carry-on regulations. You can only have one bag (no purse - so it has to fit inside your carry-on!) and that one bag must be small enough to fit inside this tiny little box. I had a big Adidas duffel bag so when I arrived at security, this guy put it on top of the box and said, "You're going to have to check that." I said, "what? But it fit on the other plane." And he said, "I'm sorry, but there are new rules and you're going to have to check that." To check it would cost me approximately $240. Wow. So I just stood there and stared at it. I just stared like a big dope - my bag was still on top of the box and everything. The guy asked me to take my bag and I just started to cry. Still standing there, staring like a dope, except now I was crying.

A man in a fancy suit (so you know he must be important) saw me crying and pulled me to the side saying, "there, there, what's the matter? We can get this sorted out." So I told him that I was going to have to check my bag but I already had excess baggage couldn't afford to check another. He was so kind and merciful to me - I thank the Lord every time I think of him. He said, "I don't see why you should have to pay for this bag, I'll come with you and we'll get it all sorted out" in his handsome British accent. So he went with me to the check in desk and spoke to the man saying, "I don't see why she should have to pay for this bag," and in a few moments all was well with the world.

While checking what became my 5th piece of luggage, the fact that the other 4 were lost came up and this kind gentleman took me with him to speak with another man (other than the 2 I had already spoken to up to this point) to try to find my luggage. They did such a good job of helping, however they still couldn't find it. Eventually I had to go get on my plane, and while my luggage took a day and a half to get to me, I am still so grateful for all his help, and also that I finally have clean clothes!

Well, that's the tale of my arrival...I'll put some pictures up and describe my AMAZING apartment later.

Adios!

LB