The Longest Day
It’s probably not the most appropriate title, especially since the anniversary of D-Day is so recent, but it is an apt description of what we are facing today. We woke up at 3am to get ready and load the car to head to Sacramento to fly to Scotland. Our original flight wasn’t supposed to leave until almost noon, which would have had us getting up at a reasonable hour. But, man makes plans and God laughs…
We now will have a 5 hour layover in Seattle, and a 4 hour layover in Reykjavik. So, from when we left Anderson this morning, to when we finally make it to Glasgow, it will have been over 24 hours of travel. The things you do for adventure :). I guess the bright side is that we wont really have to worry about tight connections :)
We are currently sitting in the airport in Sacramento waiting to board. I’ll have more to share later.
We had a slow but uneventful flight to Seattle. Due to the rain (who would have thought - rain in Seattle?), we sat on the tarmac for a while in Sac, then took a serpentine route to Seattle, to burn some more time. Once we landed, we made our way to the Amex Lounge. Unfortunately, it was full, so we got on the waiting list. We got in rather quickly, and found one of the few available seating areas and relieved ourselves of our bags.
We had a nice lunch, and did some iPad tech support for Pat, and waited for Walt and Rosanna to arrive from Idaho. Once they did, we made our way to the gate, to wait the rest of the multi-hours long layover. Icelandair has a somewhat unique boarding policy, which combined with some less-than-stellar communication techniques, resulted in a huge scrum at the boarding aisle. I must say, it was rather awesome to be blessed with the actual Charlie Brown’s Teacher doing the gate announcements.
We got on the flight, and got situated for our long summer’s flight. When we sat down, the AC blew nice and cold, so I put on my hoodie to be prepared for a nice chilly nap. Once we got in the air, however, I think the female flight attendants were in charge of the thermostat, as the cold air vanished (only to reappear right as we landed in Iceland). We had a nice, if cramped meal, though it took them FOREVER to come retrieve the dining implements. This meant that my table had my leavings, as well as Carrie’s and Pats, as they were settling down for some snoozing. It was ok, as I was in my own world (literally) watching shows on my Vision Pro, with the Moon at night environment blocking out the claustrophobic surroundings.
We finally made it to Iceland, and we disembarked for our next long layover. We found some tables to occupy, and had breakfast. It was 6 am in Iceland, but 11pm in Cali.
We still have miles to go before we sleep….miles to go before we sleep. I’ll wrap things up once we make it to Scotland….FREEDOM!!
Well, we finally made it to our destination. The best part of stepping off of the plane was feeling the cool air. Unfortunately, the terminal building’s atmospheric controls could not keep up with the sheer numbers of people lining (well, queuing would be more appropriate here) up to go through border controls. Once we finally made it through (Carrie was grumbling at the new digital gating system, because we didn’t get a stamp - they don’t do that for most people any more), we got our bags and got to the car.
I think driving in Scotland was far more stressful on my passengers than on me. I’ve done it a lot, and it became comfortable pretty quickly. Based upon the (mostly suppressed) gasps, I think it was challenging for them.
We didn’t have that far to drive to our lodging - a nice working Highland Coo farm. Our host met us before we even got out of the car, and made us feel really welcome. It is a really nice, newly refurbished space that is really warm and lovely.
Once we had gotten all our luggage in and up the STEEEEP stairs to our rooms, we settled in. My post-travel routine usually includes a nice warm shower to wash off the ick of flying. Today’s ick was over 24 hours in the making, so it felt really good. Carrie laid down to rest her eyes, and I joined her.
Two and a half hours later, Pat beckoned us, saying that the home cooked meals the host had provided were being heated up. Once we got downstairs, Rosanna opened the door to ask Walt “Do you know where my hearing aids are?” The response was priceless - “What did you say?” Carrie giggled for quite a while.
Once dinner was ready, we filled our plates and sat down to eat. As the weirdo who isn’t really that picky of an eater, but who has one clearly stated food rule - No Beans - I was left with only one option of the choices given by our host - A venison stew. After all the travel today, I wasn’t really that hungry, and I was even less inclined to try something new. I did taste it, and it wasn’t gamey at all, and was very lean and tender. I still only ate some of the veggie sides, but Walt, also not a venison-lover, did try some as well, and said it was really good.
After dinner, we got pictures imported, and I sat down to finish today’s epic travelogue. We got to FaceTime with Emma and Mariana, so that itch was scratched. It’s about 8:30 pm here, and Carrie, Pat, and I got up 33 hours ago, so we’ll probably call it a night before too long. We’re finally here 😎.
Photo of the day