Alabama 2023 - 4 July

In planning this trip, I spoilt two of the important days in July for my hosts.  By choosing to arrive on 4 July, I not only saved a few pounds, but disrupted a national celebration.

As always, our journey started early, we were up just after 6am. Looking back on last year, (https://3cephas.blogspot.com/2022/07/alabama-2022-1-corporate-greed-is.html), most things went better.  There was none of the chaos at LHR T3, but the estimate from the taxi company for the journey to Heathrow has had 30 minutes added somewhere along the way.  We left at 7:30 and arrived in the terminal 2 hours and 15 minutes later, which give an average speed of about 26 MPH (41 KMH), we will soon be back to the 8 MPH that London Taxi Cabs are supposed to have managed when they were horse-drawn.

Progress through baggage drop was acceptable, and so was security (no need to remove shoes any more!), together we completed the process in under 1.5 hours, so having left some time to spare, we were sat in the terminal, and ate lunch at a leisurely pace.

Boarding was delayed for about 10 minutes.  Here we are just before the last communication before radio silence - better known now as  'Aeroplane mode'.  Being seated at the back of the plane meant that we were in no hurry here either. Take-off was scheduled for 13:55.  The plane left the gate only 2 minutes late, (13:57), but we did not leave the ground until 14:20.

The flight was mainly comfortable, even I had enough legroom.

 

I watched 3 films :

14:00 The Pope's Exorcist - written by an exorcist, but it is unclear if this is meant to be a true story.  It's a good enough watch in 'edited for aeroplane use', and kept me engaged for the entire film.

16:10 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - during which I dozed a few times, so still haven't seen it all the way through.

18:32 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, as story from the Shrek universe.  It is quite enjoyable and seems to hang together, but it is fairly moralising at the end - to be expected from this franchise, maybe.

The food on the plane was edible, but beyond that, unremarkable.  Better were the sandwiches prepared by our hosts for the onward journey.

On landing we were diverted to an unusual gate, and had a long, uncomfortable wait before we got there, with the temperature in the cabin rising from barely warm enough to uncomfortably hot.

We arrived in Auburn in time to get out to see the 4 July fireworks, we watched the city's display from a local car park to avoid the crowds.  I tried to take a video, but as usual the phone camera is inadequate.

Being here after a long journey feels like coming home, it is so good not to have to book in to a hotel!

As so to bed, local time about 23:00, or time at point of origin about 05:00 the following day.  Very tired, but also out of sync, so sleeping is difficult, and I wake at 3:30am.