American Christmas: To Auburn, AL

The day started at 3 A.M. GMT.  We were up and preparing ourselves to leave.  Put the final things in the suitcases, weight them, to be sure it isn't over 23 kg (50lb). Load them into the car.  It is a horribly foggy meeting, so initial progress was slow.  Mike was driving us.  He swerved, "Can't see a thing!"
"Slow down then", I replied.
"Living on the edge"
"I don't want to live on the edge, I just want to live"
He slowed, but once we got on the main roads things were not so bad.  We arrived at Heathrow in plenty of time.  The check in process was straight forward enough, if slow, I even managed to use the automated check-in. Then it was through security and breakfast in the departures area.  We were in the last row at the back of the plane, which was over subscribed.
The fight had two retiring stewardesses on board, they all work very hard throughout the flight.  We were kept supplied with water, but by the end of the flight I was very dry and still suffering from a dry throat.
Last time we visited Atlanta the immigration queue was unbelievable, this time they opened the US Citizens desks to all us foreigners - which speeded thing greatly.  I sent Robert a SMS message to say we'd landed.  He couldn't read it - not sure why.  It didn't matter - @Karen Litton & her husband Robert were waiting for us at the exit, and drove us to their home in Auburn.
After a quick shower we all went to Walmart.  That can count as one of our 25 things, that we are still slowly getting through.  Then Karen cooked us a late tea. - very nice.  We went to bed about 21:30 CST, we had been awake about 24 hours.