The 777 we took from Newark to England.
On May 9, 2002, Subgirl and I awoke at 8:00 - a habbit that we non-morning people would have to get accustomed to over
the next week - to get some last minute things packed and to have all our luggage carefully placed in the vicinity of
the front door. My family was scheduled to arrive at 9:30 to take us to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport
for our 11:50 flight to Newark. They arrived more or less on schedule and we miraculously fitted all of our luggage
into the trunk of my parents family sedan. Once in the car, my mother had brought along a surprise, which absolutely
delighted my wife: a tape that I had made when I was 10 years old in which I documented the progress of another
family trip we had taken, that time to Florida. We occupied our driving time to the airport listening to that tape,
Subgirl amused by the discovery that in the course of that family trip of days gone by, I had placed my hand out the
car window at the Florida border "to see if the air was getting any warmer". But, for me, reliving these embarrassing
moments was more than worth finally getting this England trip of ours underway. Once parked in the employee's parking
lot and the walk to the airport terminal completed, the normal tasks of the flight process began. Security lines were
not so bad on this particular day, although at both checks points in Charlotte and Newark, I was pulled aside for a
"random security check" while no other member of our party ever was and I can only assume this is because of my facial
hair. We arrived at Newark just a little behind schedule because of some take-off delays at Charlotte, but this only
cut down the wait time we would have in New Jersey. The few hours we did have there was spent eating lunch and then
sitting in the food court talking/semi-napping. When it came closer to the time for the flight, we did walk a little
bit and see some of the stores. As you may already know, these plane tickets were obtained through the helpful
connections I have through my sister, who works for Continental Airlines. These passes are on a stand-by basis, but
there was no worry with that for the flights over there. Also, since the status of mine and Subgirl's passes could
only be put in coach, my sister and mother extended a nice gesture in letting us take the first class tickets since
they had previously flown first class.
This flight was quite an experience for us, but the main thing I will also remember is how much we ate. They began to
throw food at us the minute we sat down and didn't seem to stop for the 7 hour flight. Dinner had just finished being
served and the utensils taken up when signs began to show that breakfast wasn't too far away. It was at this point, I
attempted to sleep a bit, because I knew that we would arrive at 7 AM England time and a whole new day would begin. I
did manage to sleep for an hour, but Subgirl reports that a little turbulence kept her from getting to sleep. This
lack of sleep is something that I wasn't too worried about at the time, but something that would later come back to
haunt us.