From JFK to London

We spent much of our 6 hour layover in New York at two different food courts. One in Terminal 8 right after our arrival and one in Terminal 7 after we cleared security as we waited for BA Flight 0174 to begin boarding around 7:30 pm. We had New York style pizza and split a salad that Dora treated us to. The second one featured the fine cuisine of McDonald’s as we got a table, had drinks and I munched on an order of medium fries hot out of the fryer. I posted a few blog entries and we enjoyed the time together.

One we got out to Gateway 6 as boarding neared, we couldn’t find 3 seats together, so I  asked a young man if the seat next to him was taken. It wasn’t and he turned out to be a Kenyan living in Tennessee, after serving in El Pass in the U.S. military.  His wife and 2 kids were with him and I quickly made friends with his 4 year old son Matthew. Young Matt had been given 2 sets of wings by the co-pilot on their previous flight.  He had one set on his sweater and he revealed another set on his shirt underneath. Dora got this picture, isn’t he adorable? He said he was 4 and held up 4 fingers. He asked me how old I am and I held up 10 fingers 6 times and then another 4. He couldn’t fathom that! Sometimes I can’t either.

We boarded the 747 on time, but 3 late arriving passengers caused us to push away from the gate about 20 minutes late. We should still arrive in London on time, but it will be tight making our connection. We will arrive at one gate, all of us are in row 50 or above and after we decline, we will have to take a bus to another terminal, go through security once again and make it to our gate and hour before flight time. Even if we are at the terminal right on time, doing all of this in only an hour will be a minor miracle. Heathrow changed the rules after we got our tickets. They claim on their website that gates will be closed one hour prior to flight times for all long haul trips. Time will tell.