Tuesday 2nd Sep - The Flight Out

After a very quiet an comfortable night at the Hayes Premier Inn we left Brian (the Renault) to the mercy of 'Purple Parking' at Southall - a massive operation located on some old railway sidings, basic, but seemingly well organised. Our experience at the airport was surprisingly good, no hassles with unfriendly check-in or security staff, no long queues anywhere and easy stowage of carry-on luggage in an aircraft that was by no means full. The flight was smooth and uneventful with the best landing that Christine had experienced in a long time! At Philadelphia even the Immigration Officer was friendly and chatty and both our checked bags were waiting for us to pick up at baggage re-claim - a nice change from our previous long distance flights to NZ! Something just had to go wrong, and it did. Instead of the expected Marian waiting for us jumping up and down waving her Stars and Stripes and a 'Welcome to America' banner, nothing, no-one! Oh dear, what had gone wrong. After a quick call to Marian, at home, it turned out that she thought we were picking up our hire car at the airport and driving to their place. Ah well, mis-communication strikes again! As bill and Marian live not too far from the airport it wasn't long before we were comfortably settled in with a nice cup of tea and Mike enjoying a dip in the 80 plus degree swimming pool. Again we had been taken aback by the power of the heat and humidity when exiting the airport air conditioning and entering the 90 plus degree local conditions! Note the reversion to imperial units as the Americans have still not gone metric (and are not likely to)!