SWINDON - CHICAGO
Woke up approx 5.30 am to a very wet, damp English day as too excited to sleep any longer. Ken and Bev our travelling companions for the next 3 weeks arrived at approx 9.45 and we set off for Gatwick airport. Weather very muggy and still pouring with rain, we made excellent time to the airport despite the heavy traffic on the M23/25. Robert did wonder as we approached the M25 turnoff for the M23 what we were in for with Ken’s driving, seeing this was a road trip across the old Route 66. Ken had driven us to the airport and as we sailed down the M25 at about 95mph in the outside lane (it was Saturday, so not busy), Rob suddenly mentioned that we were approaching our turnoff. As it happened we were just about to pass our turning, so Ken veered across two lanes at impossible speed and shot up the slip road with us clutching our seats. Within 5 minutes we were at the airport.
We had a light lunch in the Airport, sandwiches; chocolate bars and a cup of tea each, total cost £9.64 for two.
The aircraft took off at approx 3.45 due to a delay: this was down to waiting for other aircraft to land before we could take off. We were flying at approx 35,000 feet above the clouds in the bright sunshine. We were given a meal of typical aircraft food and the entertainment for the trip consisted of comedy programmes and the film was the new Madonna movie “The Next Best thing” not very memorable.
The plane touched down approx 6.30pm local time in Detroit after 8½ hours flying time and then had to wait for the connecting flight to Chicago. We chose to take a flight that was not direct due to, one, the cost and the fact that we were not returning to Chicago but flying out of the airport in L.A at the end of our trip. The flight to Chicago was delayed for about an hour due to the very inclement weather that rolled in while waiting for our connection: thunder and lightening surrounded the airport. We sat on the plane for what seemed an eternity watching the storm all around us. We then after taxiing to the runway then had to wait for the other aircraft in front of us to take off. A very bumpy take off indeed and it was very turbulent for the first 10 minutes and the plane was bumping, pitching and rolling and seemed to struggle to get into the air. Very scary for a while until we seem to get over the top of it and the plane levelled out and it was fine, I wouldn’t have minded but this flight was going to take less than an hour.
We finally landed at O’Hare airport, Chicago, Illinois at approx 9.45pm local time, 3.45am BST. The weather was quite cool and fresh. We made our way to downtown Chicago in our rental people carrier that was to be our transport for the rest of the time spent here. Robert was driving this time and we drove to the Hojo (Howard Johnson) hotel for our first 3 nights stop over.
Woke up approx 5.30 am to a very wet, damp English day as too excited to sleep any longer. Ken and Bev our travelling companions for the next 3 weeks arrived at approx 9.45 and we set off for Gatwick airport. Weather very muggy and still pouring with rain, we made excellent time to the airport despite the heavy traffic on the M23/25. Robert did wonder as we approached the M25 turnoff for the M23 what we were in for with Ken’s driving, seeing this was a road trip across the old Route 66. Ken had driven us to the airport and as we sailed down the M25 at about 95mph in the outside lane (it was Saturday, so not busy), Rob suddenly mentioned that we were approaching our turnoff. As it happened we were just about to pass our turning, so Ken veered across two lanes at impossible speed and shot up the slip road with us clutching our seats. Within 5 minutes we were at the airport.
We had a light lunch in the Airport, sandwiches; chocolate bars and a cup of tea each, total cost £9.64 for two.
The aircraft took off at approx 3.45 due to a delay: this was down to waiting for other aircraft to land before we could take off. We were flying at approx 35,000 feet above the clouds in the bright sunshine. We were given a meal of typical aircraft food and the entertainment for the trip consisted of comedy programmes and the film was the new Madonna movie “The Next Best thing” not very memorable.
The plane touched down approx 6.30pm local time in Detroit after 8½ hours flying time and then had to wait for the connecting flight to Chicago. We chose to take a flight that was not direct due to, one, the cost and the fact that we were not returning to Chicago but flying out of the airport in L.A at the end of our trip. The flight to Chicago was delayed for about an hour due to the very inclement weather that rolled in while waiting for our connection: thunder and lightening surrounded the airport. We sat on the plane for what seemed an eternity watching the storm all around us. We then after taxiing to the runway then had to wait for the other aircraft in front of us to take off. A very bumpy take off indeed and it was very turbulent for the first 10 minutes and the plane was bumping, pitching and rolling and seemed to struggle to get into the air. Very scary for a while until we seem to get over the top of it and the plane levelled out and it was fine, I wouldn’t have minded but this flight was going to take less than an hour.
We finally landed at O’Hare airport, Chicago, Illinois at approx 9.45pm local time, 3.45am BST. The weather was quite cool and fresh. We made our way to downtown Chicago in our rental people carrier that was to be our transport for the rest of the time spent here. Robert was driving this time and we drove to the Hojo (Howard Johnson) hotel for our first 3 nights stop over.
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