Day 1

Wow. What a first day. I'm jet lagged and running on an hour and a half of sleep in the last 30 or so hours. But its worth it.

The flight from Roanoke to Atlanta was relatively uneventful. It was neat to fly for the first time, although it was crowded in a 50 passenger plane and I didn't get to see much.

The Atlanta airport. Wow. It was huge. I came into the airport at concourse C, and had to go to E. I didnt' realize how much of a crazy walk it was over there. But I got on the plane, safe and sound through the airport. It was exciting to fly off.

The plane ride was amazing. At first I thought I had a window seat, but I was in the wrong seat. That was sad. But it happens. I ended up sitting next to an older lady who wasn't all that friendly. We were served dinner of pasta, salad, and a brownie. It actually wasn't that bad. It was a 7 hour 43 minute flight. During the course of the flight, I think I went right over the Amelia/Chesterfield area, could have seen Emory and home. In the seats directly in front of each passenger was a TV/monitor type device that allowed the passenger to listen to music, follow the plane, watch movies, play video games, etc. I was able to watch the flight path of the plane most of the trip. It was neat. Also during the course of the flight I watched an episode of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Listened to a variety of stations ranging from current pop music to classic rock.

One of the more memorable parts of the flight for me was when we were flying over Quebec. It was right as the sun was setting, and there was nothing but clouds for as far as the eye could see outside. Ya know in Pirates movie where Johnny Depp is in that solid white place. Well, it was a lot like that, except the color was a baby blue. And it was absolutely beautiful. There was nothing else except this blueish color for as far as the eye could see. And we were putting down a mile every six seconds, so it was quite a distance.

Right at 5:30 Am London time, 12:30 AM Eastern Standard Time, I started to doze off. Had started dozing for about 30 minutes or so. It was incredibly hard to sleep in the plane. It was cramped and simply no room to get comfortable. Well, right as I think I'm going to doze off, the flight attendants cut on the lights. Time for breakfast. :-) 5:30 AM London time got me ready to switch mindsets and get the day started.

Some of my notes from the trip included that for most of the trip, we flew at about 37,000 feet in the air. The highest I ever saw it go up to was 40,029 feet. Outside at that altitude, the temperature pretty much stated around -75 degrees F, but I saw it drop to -81 degrees F one time. We arrived right at 7:00 AM London Time, and 2:00 AM Eastern Standard Time.

I got off of the plane and went through customs/passports, etc, and had no problem. Getting my luggage took a while simply because there was a lot of luggage to wait to come through the little terminal. I took a guess and got on a train going to a south terminal. Turned out I was right and was able to get on a train going to the center of London from Gatwick Airport. Got to Victoria Station without a problem and then got on the Black Line at Euston. No problem. Got off at Archway without a problem. But then the problem begins. I end up not being able to find either the road I'm supposed to be on or the Tesco Grocery Store that was right on the main street. I was looking for something large, like an American Grocery store. Turns out it's right on the center of the street. Too bad for me. I spend right at an hour and fifteen minutes trying to find way around this part of the city, most of it being on a huge hill that makes hills I've run before look small with all of my luggage. So I was tired, grumpy, frustrated and everything when I finally arrived at a very nice Furnival House. (By the way, it's 10:00 PM and there's still a dark blue tint to this sky). I check in, throw off my cloths, and pass out for a couple hours but not before luckily getting in touch with Whintey who is also here. We make plans to meet at four.

I wake up at 2:00 PM to take a shower and try to backtrack my route from earlier to get a better feel for this part of the city.

Alright. I'm exhausted. I'll finish in the morning!