London, Day 0

Off We Go!
Laundry was waiting for us when we woke up. With plans to head off to the airport at 3:00, the 9:00 wake-up seemed like enough time to take care of everything.

And we did…almost. In addition to the two loads from Thursday night that needed to be finished, I tried to get in a load of sheets and a load of towels. All boring to write about, I know, but it sure seemed to get in the way of packing!

As I slowly provided more clothing options to consider, Mrs. Farrago picked out items from her wardrobe to take along, and soon the bed was covered with clothing.

The lawn needed mowing…been so since the middle of the week, so I did that.

We dragged out one large size and one medium size suitcase, and we began the test to see if we had enough luggage for the trip. It came as no surprise to me that Mrs. Farrago’s load outsized mine, so she got the large suitcase. I managed to fit all the items of clothing I had set aside into the medium-sized suitcase, except for a pair of shoes…which went into Mrs. Farrago’s bag.

Strangely, we were running out of time, and it became a somewhat mad scramble to finish packing the suitcases, and then sort out our carry-on bags.

The sheets and the blanket didn’t quite dry in the full cycle, so I cleaned out the lint trap and rearranged the items in the dryer, and set them tumbling again.

Mrs. Farrago loaded the dishwasher. I took out the garbage and the recycling.

I called Yellow Taxi and asked for a cab to take us to O’Hare airport. The dispatcher said she would contact a driver and call me back with an ETA.

I turned off the air conditioners for both floors. Mrs. Farrago turned on lights in strategic locations to fool burglars into thinking we’re not out of town.

And we waited… Yellow Taxi used to inform a caller that their cab would arrive in 5 to 20 minutes. At some point in the recent past, however, that has changed. Now they say they’ll contact a driver and phone back when they know when the driver will arrive. It had been 15 minutes with no return phone call, so I called them back. The dispatcher said that no one had accepted the trip yet, but that she would see if she could get someone now.

Mrs. Farrago moved the luggage onto the front porch while I waited on hold. I suggested that it might be quicker if she went to the corner and hailed a cab while I waited on the phone. No sooner than she had reached the bottom step than a cab turned onto our street! Mrs. Farrago waved at the driver but he either didn’t see her, or he ignored her, and drove on. I kept my eye on her as she walked down to the corner, and I saw her wave at a couple taxis. The dispatcher returned and said that she had not been able to get a response form any drivers, but that she would still try. Just then I saw Mrs. Farrago leaning in the passenger window of a cab and pointing down our street toward our house. I informed the Yellow Taxi dispatcher that we wouldn’t be needing her company’s services today.

Bags loaded and on our way, we were just about to the point of no return when I realized I had forgotten to write down the phone number to my friend in Birmingham, whom we’re hoping to meet up with during the trip. I sent him the phone number to our hotel, so I hope he calls me there.

Then Mrs. Farrago reminded me to call her brother, A’s father, to let him know we were on our way. It was at this point that I remembered that we never copied her brother’s mobile phone number from her contacts list, so we then had no way of calling him to let him know we were on our way.

THEN Mrs. Farrago asked me if I had remembered to pack the planned agenda of events the Big Boss has lined up for us. I groaned my disgust at myself for forgetting, and then she asked about the hotel address and the city map that had also been provided, which had been safely tucked away with the agenda. At home.

Fortunately she had written the hotel address down on a piece of paper and tucked it into the London guide book, which she had handed to me to stick in my backpack, which I had remembered to do…and bring.

We got onto the Kennedy Expressway which, at 3:30 p.m., was a veritable parking lot, which is a given on a Friday.

Bro-in-law called me (he had my mobile number! Hmmph!) to let us know he and A were at the airport. We joined him and his family about ten minutes later.

There was a short wait in line, and then we had our boarding passes for seats scattered about the plane; no two of us were seated together. A hugged his good-byes to his mom and dad, and his little sister could barely contain her joy that her brother was going to be not only out of her hair for the next 10 days, but not even in the same country!

The security screening provided no drama, and shortly we were at our gate, C-10. The others from the company who were on our flight were all sort of congregated together near the departure door, and we greeted them and introduced them to A.

From that point forward it was typical air travel…except that we backed away from the gate early. And my personal LCD screen didn’t work. That’s okay. I intended to write or read for the whole flight, anyway.