Farewell Dallas; hello Audlem

Tuesday 2nd December to Wednesday 3rd December 2014

Our flight was scheduled for 16:50 and with the need to be there 3 hours before, plus return of the rental car, shuttle bus to terminal and actually just getting to the airport environs - oh and make sure that we fill the tank, we really didn't have that much time in the morning - especially finishing off the packing.

So we just had a leisurely breakfast; then we packed the car; filled the tank; drove to Starbucks for coffee and watch the world go by with literally no cares in the world.

We drove carefully and sedately to the airport - it was very easy, especially after Mike explained it to us the previous night.

We have had an absolutely terrific time in Dallas and enjoyed meeting Sara's family - both DeDe and Mike are fabulous people; Faarn is a very lovely person when you get to know him a bit; we truly adore Dean and Jim - they are very lovely people; really the whole family that we have met have made us feel most welcome and just like part of the family.

Returning the car was simplicity in itself - just drive into the return lane; start unloading the bags; by the time the car is unladen, the return receipt is in your hand and the keys back with the car company - less than 60 seconds - I love it!

The trip on the shuttle bus; the check-in; passport control; security - no problems here at all - in an instant we were through.
Only problem was the plane was already scheduled to be taking off a half-hour late.

We had lunch and then waited in the gate lounge for the plane to arrive and then to board - it seemed to the uninitiated and just about anyone else, that they didin't have a clue - one person was announcing seat rows to board and being quite confusing about it and the ticket checkers had other row numbers in mind about who should go on - in the end we simply used the confusion to get through and onto the plane.

The plane was a probable 20-year old 747 - very dated and unappealing - I think we have been spoiled with the Airbus A380 and other Airbus planes.
It has been over 20 years since we have flown with British Airways - then it was very nice indeed; this was not a good re-introduction to them.

This was scheduled to be an 8.5 hour flight - overnight - taking off late - in the end it was over an hour late; but heading east meant that the night went faster than you would usually have happen and consequently when we landed at just after 8am was when I started feeling tired.

I/we couldn't believe the number of checks that we had to go through - as passengers for another service we expect to have to go through security again, but we also had two separate checks on our passport and three checks on our boarding pass - even before we got to the gate lounge.
Their was even a line/queue for which we could see no valid purpose and a check to see documentation which was barely glanced at - it turned out that they had a crowded area upstairs for the security check and just wanted to limit the numbers coming upstairs - give me strength - all of this for passengers coming off international flights - the last thing that tired passengers need is this type of treatment.
The last of all of our flights - number 9 by now - was a short one from Heathrow to Manchester and we were two very happy people to have our luggage come off quickly, pass through three sets of automatic doors and to see "mum and dad" (alias Sue and Andy) there to meet us.
What kind people they are - offering to come up to Manchester and drive us back to the boat in Audlem - two very tired people were very very pleased to see you both there and a huge thanks for the lift.

Especially thankful for dropping into Morrisons on the way to pick up some essentials - the couple of gallons of milk for Diane and some other bits and pieces.
We all had some lunch together in the cafe at Overwater Marina and after a look over the boat at how she was after the work, we said goobye to Sue and Andy.

Now came the work of putting her back together - cupboards in the kitchen had been moved to accommodate some work from inside; Diane was busy with unpacking cases and getting washing started; the Mykuni was started to make sure it worked (yippee, a first time ignition); the Reflecs was fired up; the boat was starting to thaw out, as were we.

After a couple of hours we had finished as much as we could be bothered with for now - we sat down with a cup of tea and attempted to stay awake a bit longer, but it was pointless and we finally succumbed at about 7:30 and we were fast asleep.