I get a lot of comments from people who express their own desire to travel as I do. It is a well-documented fact that I love to travel, and many people have told me I should write about my travel experiences. Indeed there are many exciting, funny and not-so-funny stories I could share--like the time I dropped a briefcase on someone's head (that was actually funny, but not for him). Then there was the time the rental car shuttle bus shut the door on my head, bending my glasses and giving me two black crease marks down either side of my face.
Last night, I came up to London from Nairobi on a KLM (Royal Dutch Airline). You haven't lived until you've spent a night on a plane (last year I spent 22 nights flying to and fro). I have learned to sleep on a plane and often get off one of those red-eye flights and go to work. Last night's flight had its share of unglamorous and frustrating aspects.
First was the packing. My dear friend, Kentice Tikolo (a women), picked me up at my hotel to take me to the airport. At that point, she gave me some things to take home so I had to repack my bags in front of the hotel on the sidewalk. I knew my bags were too heavy then and, when we got to the airport, my fears were confirmed. KLM then decided to charge me $180 for excess weight! This happens to me often, especially in Kenya, and I fight it every time, appealing to anyone who will listen that this is unfair and arbitrary (I actually left with less weight than I had coming in and they had charged me nothing for my heavier bags when I originated in London).
After I paid my fine, I then requested an exit row seat so I could have more leg room. The agent proceeded to give me what is called an exit row, but is really the second row in the middle, next to the real exit rows. I argued with her that this wasn't what I wanted, but she insisted that this was the only exit row she had avaiable. I again appealed and she finally said, "We have the row in front of that but we save it for the babies." I said, "I'm acting like a baby, so I'll take that one." Her supervisor approved so I won that battle.
Then I got through passport control and ran into a friend from Pittsburgh whom I had not seen in at least 25 years--I would never have recognized him but he did me. Then as I was going to change money and buy some coffee, I walked past my gate and they told me I had to be through security 90 minutes before the flight left. I had never heard of such a procedure so I had to run to do what I needed to do. Now I am sweating hard as I enter my gate.
I fell asleep as the plane took off and missed the food that was served. I found this out as the attendant dropped at my feet an entire tray of uneaten food that he was collecting. When I asked for some (not what he had dropped; I wanted my own tray), I was informed that I had slept through the meal time and was out of luck.
We landed in Amsterdam and I caught a flight to London. We landed 20 minutes early and then had to wait 35 minutes for an available gate. When I disembarked I waited 30 minutes to clear passport control. When I got to the baggage hall, I found out that there were not luggage carts and I have to drag my two bags plus two briefcases out to meet my ride. Now I am in a heavy sweat for the second time on the trip and I am hoping the person picking me up has a sinus problem so he won't smell me.
My ride is there, thank God, for there have been times I've waited hours for my pickup. We then proceed to go over to the hotel, more than one hour away. I grabbed an hour's sleep and then went off to a church leadership planning session. We had a good session, although it was my first time working with the team leader and it took us a while to get our rhythm as we planned and talked. The meeting turned out to be a productive one. But then I was rewarded for my effort and pain.
The team I was with surprised me and took me into London's theater district where we saw Rob Lowe starring in the stage adaptation of the movie A Few Good Men, which had featured Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. I love live theater and the play was great! We rode a crowded subway to the theater, enjoyed one another's company, had drinks together at intermission (non-alcoholic in case you were wondering) and then got back to the hotel at 11 pm. All in all, it was a typical day of life on the road--frustrating, angering, challenging, exhilarating and rewarding.
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