PART ONE
Friday 27th February 2004
I was up at 5:00 a.m. and my lift to the train station arrived at 06:15, it was snowing. By 08:00 a.m. I was in London and by 09:30, standing in the American Airlines check-in queue. After check-in I had about 3 hours to kill...this was going to be a long day!
My flight got airborne around 12:30 and I settled back for the 8-hour flight to Chicago. The distance showing was 3953 miles. Lunch was served and I watched a movie. 'Let's check out how far we've gone' I thought. 'We must have gone a long way in those two hours'. No, still about 2500 miles to go...this is going to be a long flight!
On arrival in Chicago, I went through immigration and customs and then took the airport train from the International terminal to the Domestic one. I then had to go back through security before I could board the small Embrear jet bound for Nashville.
My connection time at Chicago for my return flight was only 45 minutes so, on arrival in Nashville, I had the foresight to book the front seat on my flight back to Chicago. You'll read later why this turned out to be real good thinking on my part.
I boarded the Greyline bus and soon arrived at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Vanderbilt. As I checked in, I was given a small note left for me by Kebana Reed; it contained her room number. I went to my room to freshen up and then knocked on her door. Inside waiting for me were Kebana and Val Winters. This was the first time we had met. I suggested heading for the bar, so that's what we did.
We had a couple of beers and found lots to talk about. I had a pack of playing cards with me so I performed some of my magical cards tricks. I think the Ladies enjoyed my demonstration, you'll have to ask them.
By now it was around 7:30 p.m. local time but my body was still working on London time. To me, it was 01:30 a.m. the next morning so I was ready for my bed. I left Kebana and Val to enjoy the rest of their evening while I made for my room...this had been a long day.
|
