Monday June 13, 2022
On another adventure, and not the retail kind!! Yay!!!
Despite a plan to wake up progressively earlier each day the week leading up to this trip to help adjust to Irish/UK time, it didn’t happen.
However, my very helpful body decided to wake up this morning at 3:30 am. My brain then approved and kept pointing out that 3:30 am is 8:30 am in the UK, so this was a perfect time to start thee day. Another part of my brain kept repeating “sleep.” The sleep faction won and I fell back asleep, waking up for the day a little later just shy of 5:30am.
Due to the ridiculous traffic that has been plaguing I-4, my plan was to leave the house around 7:30 am. Edon insisted that this was entirely too early since we needed to catch the first leg of our flight, a domestic flight, from Orlando at 1:28 pm.
It was a rather relaxed morning since Edon was pretty much ready to go and the only thing I needed to do was make biscuit sandwiches with tofu and biscuits that were prepped yesterday.
I did liven things up a bit by whacking my knuckle on some sharp glass doing an unnecessary house. Stitches and a missed flight flashed into my mind before I was reassured that it was just a flesh wound requiring nothing more than a cleaning, salve, and bandaid.
John kindly took the day off work to drive us to the airport and we left at 8:28 am, Edon nearly leaving his lunch in the fridge.
The GPS verified Edon’s position that we had more than enough time to make it to MCO, so for possibly the first time, we leisurely drive to the airport. We dropped off some Resupply Market items to a local friend, got gas at Costco, swung into a parking area off the Courtney Campbell Causeway to take care of a few personal things on the web that had come up, and stopped at the rest area to use the bathroom. We ate our packed lunches in the cell lot at the airport before John dropped Edon and I off at the American Airlines departure area. Hugs all around, an awkward picture, and John headed home while Edon and I headed into the airport. We were there two hours before the flight!
Edon and I had no bags to check, per usual. It was not as crowded in MCO as it had been on our previous trips and we quickly moved through security. Edon and I arrived at our gate with plenty of time to spare.
The flight to Charlotte, from where we would catch our flight to Dublin, left just about on time. Since our family normally flies discount airlines, the American Airlines basic economy seats, in-flight entertainment, and drinks seemed like quite the upgrade.
I didn’t pay for seats together so Edon and I sat in different spots on the plane. I was surprised to see the movie Belfast available on the plane, as this is our first real trip destination. I was hoping for panoramic shots of Belfast and perhaps some info about cool places in the area to visit, but the movie didn’t deliver either.
We arrived in Charlotte for a brief layover. When checking in on the app yesterday I was so excited to be randomly assigned a window seat for the Charlotte to Dublin part of the trip! I didn’t want to pay $75 each for Edon and I to pick our seats, so this was a very welcome surprise. We arrive in Dublin at 5:30 am Dublin time, so I really want to sleep on the plane. I anticipate the window seat making this much easier! Edon also was assigned a window seat, but is more ambivalent.
We boarded on time, but sat for an hour bc boarding everyone took a little long and apparently the captain’s log takes a long time to fill out for a flight like this. The plane is very full. I used the hour to write this blog post. Pretty slow typing on my iPhone…
Well, about to take off. A safe flight and sleep hopefully! Tomorrow is more airports, a train, and a rental car. And eventually an Air Bnb. Friends, though, too! Looking forward to it!
Hope the flight was uneventful
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